LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) - Individuals with diagnosed mental health illnesses can now stay in Lima to get extended care.
The We Care Regional Crisis Center now has undergone an expansion that will provide additional care to clients being discharged from the hospital or from their critical care unit. It will give them the counseling and care that will help them get back out into society.
"I think it will really fill a gap in the community," said Hattie Tracy, president and CEO of Coleman Health Services. "When individuals come into our crisis stabilization unit, their typical length of stay is really only about five to 10 days. What we've seen over time is that there really is an opportunity for us to be able to provide extended care for some of these individuals who really need a little bit more."
"We're saving lives, and this particular building, with the two levels of care that it offers, saves lives and it gets people access to treatment immediately," said Tammie Colon, executive director for the Mental Health Recovery Services Board.
The unit houses nine beds with eight private rooms and one double occupancy room.Â
The unit houses nine beds with eight private rooms and one double occupancy room. It is a secure unit that is separate from the critical crisis wing. Colon believes that mental health issues aren't diminishing, but are changing.
"I think we're experiencing different things; we're experiencing more anxiety, we have more depression, we have more trauma that's going on," said Colon. "But for those very biologically sick people who suffer from a severe mental disorder, we are saving their lives, and we are preventing them from having to go outside of our community to get better."
The $6,000,000 project was funded from local, state, and federal dollars.
