A 24-hour behavioral health crisis center is planned to be built in Columbia.
Burrell Behavioral Health and Phoenix Programs announced their partnership Wednesday to bring a walk-in crisis center paired with social-setting-detox-programs. The center will be open every day of the year, the companies said.
The crisis center seeks to help treat mental health and substance use.
The crisis center will offer:
- Medication-assisted treatment for opioid use.
- Psychiatric assessment.
- Brief therapy.
- Peer support services.
- 23-hour stabilization and observation.
- Three-day stay in an Adult Crisis Stabilization Unit.
- Follow-up treatment referral.
Burrell Behavioral Health is a state-designated Community Mental Health Center that serves 17 Missouri counties including Boone County.
The company currently has two locations in Columbia — the Berrywood Center and the Stephens Lake Clinic. Neither of those locations are open 24 hours.
Phoenix Programs is an addiction recovery nonprofit based in Columbia. The Burrell crisis center is planned to be built on their property to give patients easy access to the longer-term treatment Phoenix Programs offers, according to the news release.
Columbia has budgeted $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funding to go towards a behavioral health crisis facility, which is awaiting city council approval, according to a Burrell news release.
The crisis center is expected to create 40 new jobs with 22 of those being full-time, according to the news conference handout.
In Greene County, it’s estimated that a Burrell Behavioral Crisis Center there saved the community $4.4 million in its first year of operation by averting costs from local law enforcement, emergency responders and hospital emergency departments, according to the news release.
“We need a Behavioral Crisis Center,” said Mat Gass, Burrell Behavioral Health Central Region President. “We need to balance the impact on our hospital systems and our law enforcement.”
That Greene County center has treated about 1,650 patients in the first year, and Burrell estimates that a Columbia crisis center will see similar results.
“We have the opportunity to replicate this very successful crisis center right here in Columbia,” said Mayor Brian Treece in the news release.
