A new facility in Honesdale is bringing mental health crisis care closer to home for people in Wayne County and surrounding areas, and expanded offerings already are in the works.
The Northeast Regional Crisis Stabilization Center opened its 24/7 walk-in crisis intervention service on Dec. 18, and residential beds will soon be added to the facility.
Its crisis residential program, where up to eight people can stay for up to five days at a time, is expected to open in the first quarter of this year, giving people in need of crisis stabilization a transitional care option before being sent to an inpatient facility.
That service will be the first of its kind in Wayne County according to John Nebzydoski, the county's behavioral health director.
“There's no current inpatient psych beds in Wayne County. So everybody's getting transferred out,” Nebzydoski said.
The new center on Park Street expands on the services that Wayne County’s Office of Behavioral and Developmental Programs and Early Intervention (BDPEI) and CCR had been providing in downtown Honesdale since 2021.
Wayne County BDPEI, Center for Community Resources, Inc. (CCR) and Carbon-Monroe-Pike Mental Health and Developmental Services (MH/DS) collaborated on the center.
It's been in progress since 2022, when BDPEI and Carbon-Monroe-Pike MH/DS applied for and received $5.9 million from various funding sources for the purchase and renovation of the building that now houses the center.
Officials liken the center to an urgent care for mental health issues, and they say it's already making a difference.
"Since opening our doors, we have seen an immediate impact within the community," said Victoria Toomey, CCR outreach coordinator.
Range of services described
The walk-in center will be open and staffed 24/7 and anyone can be treated there, regardless of age or where they live.
The crisis residential program will have eight beds, where individuals can stay for up to five days. That service will be for people 18 and older.
Staff at the center see it as a transitional program for individuals who are unsafe to go home, but not immediately in need of inpatient psychiatric care.
“We're trying to give people a place before they have to take that step of deciding to go inpatient,” Toomey said. “They can either re-enter into the community, or if they feel like they do need that higher level of care, then we can help facilitate that process of moving forward into a higher level.”
Nebzydoski expanded on that.
“We're looking to serve those individuals who aren't necessarily safe to go home, but they don't need to be in a locked inpatient psychiatric unit. They're here voluntarily. They want the help, and we're hoping to be able to serve them here in Honesdale, rather than having to ship them to an inpatient unit,” he said.
The residential program also will be staffed with certified peer specialists.
"We'll have certified peer specialists on staff with lived mental health experience that are just here as someone to talk to for the individual staying and they can accompany them to appointments in the community if they need to go see a doctor,” Toomey said.
About 40 people will work at the new center once it's fully staffed, Nebzydoski said.
“There will be a full staff of mental health professionals, so there's nurses, licensed nurse practitioners, therapists. They'll have access to a psychiatrist,” Toomey said.
Taking pressure off Wayne Memorial Hospital
Officials also say the new facility will help ease the burden on Wayne Memorial Hospital. Located in Honesdale, it's the only hospital serving Wayne and Pike Counties.
Emergency rooms are often overwhelmed with patients. And research archived at the National Institutes of Health found that triage practices typically place individuals experience a mental health crisis low on the priority list for treatment.
“Their emergency room is often very busy," Nebzydoski said of Wayne Memorial Hospital.
"We're comparing this to an urgent care," he said of the new center. "If you're in mental health crisis, you're not bleeding, you're in reasonably good physical health, please come here."
Toomey said that will be better for both facilities and their patients.
“It's a symbiotic relationship. Putting a person in crisis in the position to be able to meet with the mental health specialist immediately, and then also putting the ER in a position where they're able to treat what they need to treat in a timely manner,” she said.
Grant funding used for start-up, initial free care
The center is relying on grant funding to get started. That funding will also allow the center to provide free care at start-up, though that is expected to change.
Nebzydoski said when they start billing insurance, the walk-in center will be in-network for Medicaid recipients living in Wayne, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties. And the crisis residential program can treat Medicaid recipients living in Wayne, Carbon, Pike and what he called "some further out rural counties."
"But we're working towards, we need to be able to bill private insurance eventually,” he said.
Toomey said the community has been supportive so far.
“Because it's the first of its kind, I think people are interested in it, and they want to learn more about it,” she said.
“That starts that conversation of breaking down that stigma around mental health and the fact that this is a project that is backed by the county and has been like in the works for so long, I think people are interested in it, and I think we need to keep that ball rolling with continuing that conversation,” Toomey added.
