When you enter the new Franklin County Crisis Care Center, you are only ever moving forward.
Literally. The building was designed that way, said Jonathan Thomas, chief operations officer of the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board (ADAMH). From the lobby to the discharge room, someone seeking care never moves backwards to a room they were in before, a physical representation that recovery is a “forward moving journey.”
The 72,000 square-foot center is located at 465 Harmon Ave in South Franklinton. Once fully operational, the center will provide 24 hours a day, seven days a week services, including mental health and addiction walk-in services, a medical urgent care, a pharmacy, 23-hour observation and 16 inpatient beds for those in need of care for longer than 24 hours.
There are also family support resources for those whose loved ones are in the center and continuum of care resources, including on-site linkage to housing and outside care providers.
All these can soon be accessed by adults 18 and older, “regardless of immigration, residency, or insurance status,” the board said, and regardless of type or level of mental health crisis. The center operates with what’s called a “no-wrong-door” approach, meaning that whenever or however someone arrives at the center, they will “be welcomed and will receive appropriate services and supports.”
The myriad care options make this new crisis center a sort of central hub, Thomas explained. While Franklin County has inpatient psychiatric units, detox centers, counseling and other services, the center aims to serve as a go-to location for first responders since they’ll provide many services in one place and connect those in their care further.
That approach, according to Thomas, will save police and other emergency workers hours that they might spend trying to find the right place to take a person in a mental health crisis or time spent waiting to hand off an individual to an emergency department.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s a crisis, so come to the crisis care center,” Thomas said.
More than $60 million community effort
Spearheaded by the county ADAMH board, the crisis care center is a more than $60 million community effort that’s been more than a decade in the making. Funders include the state, the county, the city of Columbus, philanthropic donors and the three major adult-serving hospitals in central Ohio: OhioHealth, Mount Carmel Health System and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
“You can see all of the thought put into the facility; years’ worth of work,” said Erika Clark Jones, chief executive officer of the Franklin County ADAMH Board, emphasizing the community effort of numerous funders, outside providers, and care partners to bring it together. “We think it can make a difference in strengthening our behavioral health safety net.”
Recovery Innovations, an international crisis services organization who has helped design the center through the building process, will operate it. The organization brings in practices that have worked in their 50 locations in the United States, like referring to patients as “guests.”
“An exercise I always do is in your head, say patient or client. Then say guest,” explained Akemie Jones, assistant director of Learning & Development with Recovery Innovations. “Which one comes with the highest level of service delivery?”
Inpatient observations and longer stays are called “retreats,” and staff won’t be wearing scrubs but rather plain clothes like the guests. There are multiple secure outdoor spaces and safe, comfortable furniture, and quiet rooms with adjustable lighting to help decrease stimulation for both guests and staff.
“When they walk through the door… we want them to feel like ‘Oh, this feels different, like people might actually care about me and I’m willing to give them an opportunity to prove it’,” Akemie Jones said.
The operations of the center will be sustained by revenue from insurance payors, Medicaid and managed care organizations, as well as ADAMH tax levy funds.
Mental health needs are expected to grow in Franklin County
According to data compiled by the Franklin County ADAMH board, 1 in 5 of the county’s roughly 1.3 million residents experience mental illness in a given year. Approximately one in 10 will abuse or be dependent on drugs and alcohol.
With Franklin County’s population expected to increase by 8% over the next 10 years, the county ADAMH board expects a 23% increase in the need for mental health services.
Already, around 30,000 mental health crisis episodes are treated in Franklin County each year. Many of these are treated at already busy hospital emergency departments, but officials estimate that once the new center is fully operational, they will be able to serve 60% of the adults currently presenting to those local EDs.
The crisis center will host a community open house on May 15, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. You can RSVP online.
Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com or @samanthajhendr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
