Walk-in traffic at the Northeast Regional Crisis Stabilization Center increased 280% since the service moved to its new location on Honesdale’s Park Street.
“From December and January to now, compared to that period a year prior, our walk-in traffic is up 280%, so I think the words getting out there, we were fortunate to have, it seems to be embraced by the community… People are finding that it is a quick and easy place to get treatment, and in that time of need, and we're hoping that continues,” said John Nebzydoski, the behavioral health director at the Wayne County Office of Behavioral Development Programs and Early Intervention.
The Office previously offered walk-in service only five days a week, eight hours a day, on Main Street.
Now, the Center will have a crisis residential program to which people in crisis can be referred, located just upstairs from the walk-in center. The eight-bed program for adults 18 and older opened for service on Sunday, March 15.
Crisis residential program in Honesdale
Nebzydoski described the crisis residential program as an alternative option for those in need of mental healthcare.
“It's kind of like an in-between level of service. If somebody is experiencing a crisis, they're not really safe to go home, but they don't really need the level of a locked inpatient psychiatric unit,” he said. “They could be served in the crisis residential. It's a five to 10-day stay where they'll receive treatment therapy. We have nurse practitioners for medication management, get them stabilized and referred for follow-up care.”
The baseline stay, according to Patty Gilgore, the director of programs for the Center for Community Resources (CCR), is five days, with the option to extend another five based on treatment.
CCR collaborated with Wayne County’s Office of Behavioral and Developmental Programs and Early Intervention and Carbon-Monroe-Pike Mental Health and Developmental Services (MH/DS) to open and operate the center.
Funding for the building included an award from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services, money from the Community Development Block Grant Program administered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Pa. Department of Community and Economic Development and contributions from the Moses Taylor Foundation and the Wayne Community Foundation. The total cost for the center's design, purchase and renovation was $3,311,912.
Gilgore said there are about 25 people on staff for the residential program.
“We have a large multidisciplinary team, which includes psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, RNs, licensed therapists, case managers, peers, certified peer specialists and mental health support staff. While someone's at the crisis residential, they have the opportunity to meet with all of those different levels of professionals to deal with the crisis that they're experiencing,” she said.
People can be referred to the program by a provider, or they could refer themselves.
Gilgore directed people to call the crisis residential phone number at 570-290-8780. People can also reach the center through the 24/7 crisis intervention phone number at 833-577-3224.
Anyone, regardless of insurance type or level, can be served. The center is currently using grant funds for start-up costs that will also cover the cost of uninsured care.
“The good news is that anyone can be served,” Nebzydoski said. “Any adult who's willing can be served. There's no cost. If they do have medical assistance, we can bill that; if they don't, the grant can cover those costs for now as we work towards the future and figuring out insurance billing and sustainability moving forward, but we have a lot of flexibility right now,” Nebzydoski said.
Bringing mental health care to rural counties
While anyone can get treatment at the walk-in center, the crisis residential program will serve residents of Wayne, Pike, Monroe, Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties.
“This gives the community another option, another opportunity in our rural counties that hasn't existed before,” Gilgore said.
Nebzydoski said the crisis residential program is the first of its kind in Wayne County.
“We're very excited for it, because people can receive this treatment that's never been available here in Wayne County. They can receive it here in their community, close to home. The closest one previously was one that closed in Schuylkill County, which was pretty far away, wasn't really practical. The other issue, too, is if somebody needed inpatient hospitalization, their closest hospital that does that is in Moosic,” he said.
“Rural Pennsylvania has a right to this treatment as well. Things that may have only been available in more populated areas, I think it's fair to our residents that they have access to something like this here,” Nebzydoski continued.
The Center also used grant funds to purchase vehicles.
“We can give people rides to and from because transportation is a challenge in our rural area, so we're just trying to make the ease of access lessen the burden to get people treatment when they need it,” Nebzydoski said.
Easing the burden on rural emergency rooms
Emergency rooms are often overwhelmed with patients. Research archived at the National Institutes of Health found that triage practices typically place individuals experiencing a mental health crisis low on the priority list for treatment.
Gilgore wants to direct people experiencing a mental health crisis away from emergency rooms.
“Sometimes people will utilize the emergency room because they're not sure where else to go… They're discharged from the ER, and then a lot of times, the crisis that they're experiencing doesn't resolve itself, and then they end up inpatient,” Gilgore said. “The benefit of crisis residential is giving individuals that additional option or layer within the system of being able to address their mental health or address the crisis that they're experiencing before it continues to escalate to the point where someone needs to go to the hospital or needs to go inpatient. Crisis residential is a less restrictive level of care and environment.”
She said the crisis stabilization center is more conducive to treating a mental health crisis.
“ERs are overwhelmed in general. There's medical emergencies and people; it's a very overwhelming environment to walk into an ER. The crisis stabilization center itself gives an individual an opportunity to come to the walk-in, be assessed by a crisis worker, not sit in an emergency room for hours or days on end. Being able to then recommend the potential to come stay at the crisis residential to try to help mitigate that crisis,” Gilgore said.
Nebzydoski already sees the benefits from the past few months of the 24/7 walk-in center being open. He looks forward to the added support the crisis residential program can provide to the community.
“Just helping people out in their time of utmost need and crisis,” Nebzydoski said of his top priority as the program starts to provide care. “We'd like to reduce those inpatient hospitalizations, if they're not needed, reduce people experiencing crisis waiting in the ER for hours on end, and hopefully some outcomes like reduce suicides and tragedies like that, if people can get access to mental health care quickly, conveniently close to home.”
Editor's note: WVIA Healthcare Reporter Lydia McFarlane's position is supported through funding from Moses Taylor Foundation, AllOne Charities, Eureka Foundation, Wayne County Community Foundation and Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains.
