Douglas County Treatment and Recovery Center to Begin Phased Opening Monday – The Lawrence Times

Douglas County and Bert Nash deal now public

The Douglas County Treatment and Recovery Center is scheduled to open Monday, April 10.

Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday approved a final agreement with the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to operate the center.

With the agreement and lease finalized and signed Thursday by Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky and Bert Nash CEO Patrick Schmitz, the TRC will be ready to welcome community members after the weekend.

When Phase 1 opens, TRC urgent care services will be available to Douglas County residents of all ages.

In this phase:

• The TRC will be open 7 days a week, regardless of public holiday hours.
• Emergency Care will receive walk-in community visits from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
• Patients will be seen by a provider within one hour of arriving at the facility.
• Services will include triage, assessments, referrals, initial treatment planning, psychiatric medication assessments and prescriptions, and care coordination.
• Admissions for Bert Nash will be completed at TRC.
• Bert Nash will have a written plan for follow-up communication and coordination of care with external providers.
• Patients seen at the CRT will be able to return to the CRT for follow-up care as needed.
• Bert Nash will have a mechanism in place to track and report follow-up appointment times.
• Bert Nash will track and provide monthly data reports to the county including time of first appointment, referrals and/or return/follow up to TRC Urgent Care.

Later phases will add to these services and tasks.

Ultimately, “the parties agree that the Center should accept all patients for evaluation and treatment despite their acuity whenever possible,” according to the agreement. “The county wants a commitment from the provider that it will accept, assess and treat all patients who present with high-acute behavioral health and/or substance abuse issues, except in very limited cases where it is not medically or legally possible for the Center to provide care. »

Here’s a glimpse of the center at 1000 W. Second St., near Second and Alabama streets. Check out a full photo tour from October with descriptions of the main building features at this link.

Next phases

Here are some key additions in Phases 2-4:

Phase 2: By May 25, the center will open its observation and stabilization units. These will be open 24/7 for adult patients in mental health or addiction crisis. Patients can stay up to 23 hours in the observation unit before being discharged or transferred to another facility, and they can stay 72 hours in the stabilization unit.

These units will accept referrals from the LMH Health Emergency Department, Law Enforcement, Mobile Response Team, and First Responders. Patients referred this way will enter through a special entrance.

The capacity of these units will start at 10 patients, increasing to 16 by July 17 and 24 by October 7.

Step 3: By July 17, services will expand to include drug-assisted detox, and the center will be able to take involuntary discontinuations. The center will also have developed a patient handbook that informs patients about available services, patient rights, grievance procedures and more.

Phase 4: Within the first six months of opening, the TRC will gain accreditation for more services and ensure that its interim operating license – issued in October – does not expire.

Further, “If the county establishes a board, council or other body to perform functions related to community behavioral health and addiction treatment, including but not limited to the center, the provider will participate and will cooperate with this body in the manner specified by the County. This body will have no governance role over the Center, but its purposes, among others, will be to solicit consumer feedback, community feedback, public education and accountability,” according to the agreement.

Urgent care services will be available from Monday; in the meantime, the TRC website includes a long list of local resources already available. Find this at trcdgks.org/resources.

See more details in the signed operating agreement below. The agreement will be in effect until December 31, 2023 and Bert Nash is eligible for an extension to 2024 and beyond.

The center is still recruiting for several positions. Consult the available jobs on this link.

Signed-Bert-Nash-TRC-Operation-Agreement-04.06.232

Get mMental Health help to Lawrence

These resources are available 24/7 if you or someone you know needs immediate mental health help:

• Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center: 785 843-9192
• Kansas Suicide Prevention HQ (formerly headquarters): 785-841-2345
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: dial 988; veterans, dial 1
• SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator and Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

Mackenzie Clark (her), journalist/founder of the Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more about his work for The Times here. Check out his staff biography here.

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