Christus St. Michael-Atlanta adds $1.2M mental health wing

By Bobby Horn Jr.

Special to the Journal

Construction of a $1.2 Million 24-bed mental health wing at CHRISTUS St. Michael- Atlanta is expected to be completed by mid-December.

The expansion is a joint project between Community Healthcore, which is the mental health and intellectual disability governing authority for Bowie, Cass, Gregg, Harrison, Marion, Panola, Red River, Rusk and Upshur counties, and Christus St. Michael.

Community Healthcore Executive Director Inman White said that they have been waiting for a long time to bring a new level of mental health care to Cass and surrounding counties. “Years of planning have gone into it,” he said. “We started working on this seven years ago. We didn’t have the ability to get people into beds for observation and evaluation.”

White said there were two main obstacles to overcome. The first was finding a place that had space available for the unit and the other was finances. After going through several grant application processes they were finally able to get their financing. “We’re persistent, if nothing else,” he said.

Originally the wing was planned with eight beds. However, with the additional funding White said that they will be able to create a 24-bed ward. The ward will feature 14 beds for crisis/ residential use. Under federal law some of the beds have to be available for patients who choose to leave on their own. Another 10 beds have been set aside for urgent care/ observation. These are locked rooms where patients are observed for 10 to 48 hours (the maximum allowed without a court order).

The wing will have staff/ patient and law enforcement entrances that are separate from the main hospital entrance. Future plans are to provide separate food service, linen and pharmacy services for the wing.

This past April Community Healthcore conducted a test area at the hospital with three beds. White said that they ran between 70 and 80 people through the mini-ward, with the average stay being three days.... 

Read more in this week's edition of the Atlanta Citizens Journal. 

Photo by Bobby Horn Jr. 

Loren Miller (right), administrator for the Regional Crisis Response Center gives Healthcore Board Chairperson Shirley Baker and Cass County Judge-Elect Becky Wilbanks a tour of the construction area which will be a new $1.2 million mental health wing at CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital-Atlanta.