NEW PORT RICHEY \u2014 Pasco County residents will have greater access to behavioral health services following the groundbreaking of the county\u2019s first Behavioral Health Central Receiving Facility.<\/p>\n
BayCare Behavioral Health leaders and local government officials celebrated the Oct. 20 ceremony at the BayCare Behavioral Health Institute campus on King Helie Boulevard. The facility is scheduled to open next summer.<\/p>\n
The ceremony drew elected officials, BayCare Behavioral Health leaders, local police, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco and other guests.<\/p>\n
The facility will provide crisis intervention, assessment and referral services for individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crisis.<\/p>\n
Funding for the project, totaling more than $2 million, comes from state allocations and a donation from the Morton Plant Mease Hospital Foundation. The money will cover renovation and expansion of BayCare’s Integrated Stabilization Unit.<\/p>\n
BayCare Behavioral Health, the largest provider of behavioral health services in west-central Florida, serves approximately 70,000 patients annually through its network of inpatient and outpatient services. The network includes five receiving centers and a Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center that opened in February.<\/p>\n
Gail Ryder, vice president of the BayCare Behavioral Health Institute, said the facility will maximize available space to evaluate more patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeds don\u2019t improve people; they simply keep them safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Nocco said the county\u2019s growing population necessitates increased resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a law enforcement perspective, we greatly appreciate any expansion of behavioral health services, as this is an area that has historically been underresourced in the Tampa Bay area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Ed Hooper, who championed the expansion project with state Rep. Brad Yeager, emphasized the importance of mental health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe need for mental health counseling and behavioral health care increases every year,\u201d Hooper said. \u201cIt is critical to the well-being not only of a family or an individual, but of our entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Income level doesn\u2019t matter<\/p>\n
Reducing hospitalizations and providing help before conditions worsen is a main goal, regardless of patients\u2019 income levels, Ryder said in an interview after the ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the urgent care unit across the street,\u201d Ryder said. \u201cYou can go right now if you need to be seen; there\u2019s no wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
The outpatient clinic, Intensive Stabilization Unit and the urgent care unit all report cases, she said. Staff use assessments to understand each patient\u2019s needs and direct them to appropriate care.<\/p>\n
The expansion will provide more space for patient assessments, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW PORT RICHEY \u2014 Pasco County residents will have greater access to behavioral health services following the groundbreaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[91176,91175,134,554,555,91177,91174,111,139,69,91173],"class_list":{"0":"post-132839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-baycare-behavioral-health","9":"tag-behavioral-health-central-receiving-center","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-morton-plant-mease-hospital-foundation","14":"tag-new-port-richey","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-pasco-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}