Bartlett Regional Hospital is opening an additional center for patients suffering from mental health issues in the next few months.
This center located situated on the Bartlett campus, means patients in need of urgent care don’t need to leave Juneau to seek it.
Aurora Behavioral Health Center comes amid the increasing depression crisis that has reached its peak in Juneau. with wait lists for services specifically for youth.
Jennifer Carson, Bartlett’s interim director of behavioral health, interim executive she said that an earlier Department of Justice review of youth mental health services in Alaska has revealed a wide gap, with a lot of youth needing to leave their community as well as the entire state to seek treatment.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We are aware that children are struggling. We’re hoping to be able to help fill the gap. We’re aware that there’s nothing like this in the entire state at the moment,” she said.
Beginning this fall the center will be following the model known as Crisis Now for addressing acute behavioral and mental health issues. Carson explained that the model was created to address issues that are not addressed in other methods — such as patients enduring months of waiting lists, being taken away from home or being sent to prison.
“The strategy is for law enforcement to provide a pleasant handover to our team to aid the individual in coming to us and get the therapy services they require,” Carson said on the Juneau afternoon earlier this week.
Aaron Surma, with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Juneau The center will be able to better assist those who require help urgently.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”You have the distance of five feet before you Do you? You’re not thinking in the long-term. So I believe an approach that fits the mentality isn’t logical,” he said. “Long term services don’t correspond to your personality when you’re in a crisis .”
The crisis stabilization center will be available round all hours and will be staffed by health professionals, nurses and social staff. The center will provide emergency stabilization for teenagers as well as adults with mental health crises according to the site. The average stay is 18 hours.
Additionally, the center is expected to provide brief residential stays to those who require extra care. The residential center will include seven beds, which overlook Gastineau Channel.
Carson announced that her stabilization centre and the program for residential children will be open at the beginning of fall, for adolescents aged between 12 and 17. Carson is hoping that the services will be available to adults by the end of fall.
In accordance with the Alaska Department of Behavioral Health Aurora’s Behavioral Health Services are under Medicaid coverage, while private insurance coverage is determined on a case-by-case basis.
