Edgewater's Amy Rouker (left) talks with Dr. Rose Green-Thomas and Evelyn Harris

Quick care for the mentally ill

Contributed By:The 411 News

The promise of providing immediate care to adults with mental health and behavioral problems including substance abuse will be tested in Gary but it has been a proven success in clinics across the nation.

Edgewater Behavioral Health Systems held a ribbon cutting for its new Rapid Access Center Tuesday, a first for Indiana. Danita John-son-Hughes, Edgewater’s CEO, said the facility at 4747 W. 24th Avenue will provide multiple benefits to mental health clients and to the community.

The immediate effect of the center, Dr. Johnson-Hughes said will be in diverting the mentally ill away from jails and hospital emergency rooms.

“When we told the state department of health about what we wanted to do, they asked to be part of this project. Now we will be the model program for the state of Indiana.”

Amy Rouker, who helped Edgewater set up the Rapid Access Center, has established other immediate care mental health centers, most recently in South Dakota and Nevada. “This type of facility works because it reduces the cycle of mental health crises. I’ve seen it change peoples’ lives.”

The important thing, she said, is building rapport with the clients. “They find out that we care and they begin to trust us. Acting out is decreased because this is not a locked facility. If they want to leave, we don’t stop them.”

“Facilities like this make a lot of sense,” said Dr. Michael McGee, Emergency Room Chief at Methodist Hospitals. “The mentally ill overburden the hospital’s emergency services. This will increase the care for those who have been visiting our emergency rooms.”

Lake County Sheriff John Buncich has said that more than 30 percent of inmates in the county jail shouldn’t be there, that they should be receiving treatment in a mental health facility.

Instead of ambulance services, police and fire EMS personnel using hospital emergency rooms or jails to detain persons showing signs of mental illness, the Rapid Access Center will be the first stop. And clients may walk-in themselves. It is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. The clinic began accepting patients at midnight, the day of the ribbon cutting.

Two levels of care are available. Some clients will benefit from a stay of less than 24 hours in the center’s Short-term Crisis Residential Unit. The aim here is to stabilize the patients, evaluate their medications, and let them return to the community.

Clients needing longer stays, up to a maximum of 28 days, will be housed in the Immediate Psychiatric Care Unit. There, medical and psychiatric assessments are taken; a determination will be made of resources and family support; and community placement if necessary.

Rouker said clients will not be turned away because of inability to pay. Medicaid will accept payments for some services.

The clinic has a 31-bed capacity.

Story Posted:07/03/2015