Portage Crisis Center expansion expected to begin by fall
The Portage Crisis Center is undergoing an expansion to increase housing for patients and broaden the center’s reach in an effort to help children and adults with mental illness, as well as provide first responders with more efficient means to manage crises.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place at the Crisis Stabilization Unit at 3922 Lovers Lane in Ravenna on Friday, March 1, to celebrate the renovation and expansion of the Portage Crisis Center facility.
The existing facility, owned by the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County and run by Coleman Health Services, will undergo a renovation, which will include the construction of an additional wing dedicated to children and their families, along with an expansion of services designed to combat the growing demand for mental health assistance in Portage County.
Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County Executive Director John Garrity said construction on the project is expected to start in the fall of 2024, at the latest, and is projected to be finished as early as fall of 2025.
State Rep. Gail Pavliga’s advocacy at the state house was instrumental in acquiring $2.5 million in state funding for the project; another $2 million was sourced from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the remainder came from the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County’s local levy reserves.
The current 11-bed crisis stabilization facility will be expanded into two separate components: one for adults that houses 14 beds and a new unit that houses four beds specifically for families and children. Currently, the facility isn’t set up for children’s crisis stabilization.
“I think this is something that is very important to our community,” Pavliga said, “and important to the families that, again, they will have a place to be able to go that no child will be sitting in a hospital being unattended, or not being reacted to in their time of need in a proper way.”
The facility will also be able to accommodate patients from a few days up to a couple of weeks.
It will be staffed with an on-site or on-call psychiatrist, certified nurse practitioners, prescribers and several high level licensed clinicians.
A new aspect of the facility will be its ability to accept patients directly, instead of going through the hospital.
“We’re planning a police drop off, which will be very efficient for both police and paramedics,” Garrity said. “Oftentimes now, people present in a psychiatric crisis at the hospital ED. This way we’re going to be able to get them right to our center.”
The new facility will also have the authority to involuntarily hold patients for 23 hours, which is a timeframe that meets Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration guidelines.
“Another thing that’s going to be new, we will have the ability for what they call a 23-hour hold,” Garrity said. “Right now our crisis stabilization unit is voluntary, where if people drop someone off, they may not want to be there, and they just leave, but we’ll have the ability to keep them there until they’re safe.”
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Erik Golias routinely sees mental health crises on the job.
“We get a first-hand look at those mental health issues,” Golias said. “This [new facility] gives us also another resource to help guide them. Our job is not to try to arrest the problem; our job is to try to steer the problem to the resources, such as the mental health and recovery board, such as a center like this provides, so we do not have a repeat offense of those deadly type behaviors that take lives throughout Ohio’s roadways.”
In recent years, local officials have seen a rise in mental health problems in the community, especially among children.
“I think kids live in such stressful times,” Garrity said. “Our schools are telling us the kids have a lot more needs, mental health needs, and especially since Covid. Covid had a significant negative impact on a lot of kids, because they were pretty isolated for two years. Not being in school, and not having their friends and teachers and support network, it was pretty stressful for kids.”
This year, Portage County possibly saw its youngest ever suicide victim.
“You know, we had a very tragic incident with a young boy who died from suicide just a week or two ago,” Garrity said. “He was just 12 years old, which I believe is our youngest ever. Our suicide rate here in Portage County, just as it does across Ohio, and as it does the entire United States, our suicide rate has been high, very high for the last couple years. It’s just a very difficult time.”
Garrity said one of the next steps for the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County is acquiring the resources needed to provide long term supportive housing for people with serious mental illness.