Creating the Guilford County Behavioral Health Center was a long collaborative process between Guilford County, Cone Health and the Sandhills Center and, on Monday, August 1, the center announced that it was expanding service with the addition of 16 longer-term crisis care beds meant to provide “an immediate, safe place for observation and care for adults with significant mental and emotional health care needs.”
The center was designed to be a central “no wrong door” location to help those with mental health or substance abuse issues. It opened just over a year ago and has been providing care 24/7 since then.
On Monday, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said in a prepared statement that the center has been doing great work, and these additional longer-term beds, for those age 18 and up, will help further the cause.
“The Guilford County Behavioral Health Urgent Care has served thousands of residents experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis with compassionate, immediate, confidential care since opening in 2021 – but sometimes those needs are more complex and last beyond the initial symptoms,” Alston stated.
He added that the new longer-term beds in the same building would allow patients to continue their recovery without having to leave the county or their local support system.
Guilford County Behavioral Health Center Director Debra Mack said the new 16-bed adult crisis care beds will allow the facility “to deepen the services” at the site.
The Guilford County Behavioral Health Center is now the first in North Carolina to offer both urgent- and crisis-level behavioral health care in one location while also offering medical screenings for conditions such as diabetes and asthma.
Many other behavioral care facilities don’t accept patients who need both behavioral and medical care.
In addition to the 16 beds for adults 18 and over that has just opened, a second facility on the campus being operated by Alexander Youth Network includes a 16-bed crisis center that provides extended stay care for adolescents.
Do they have room for Skip & his minions?
So, this place is transitioning to be a sanitarium now?
I need mental and emotional care now. Can you come for my wife?