The Orange County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) is making way on expanding local behavioral health services, recently approving a land purchase for a future Crisis Diversion Facility.
Approved at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, the five-acre property is located off Waterstone Drive in Hillsborough. It was selected for its proximity to the UNC Hospitals Hillsborough campus and is already zoned for hospital use.
The county first approved a contract for a Crisis Diversion Facility in 2022, working to support its Strategic Plan. As part of the county’s “Healthy Community” goal, the facility intends to improve support services for adults and children experiencing a behavioral health crisis, while also offering a better alternative to the typical diversion locations, like a detention center or emergency department — neither of which are an ideal setting for treatment.
“This initiative not only expands local access to behavioral health services but also helps reduce strain on our emergency systems,” Orange County Manager Travis Myren said in a county press release about the purchase. “It represents a community-centered approach to crisis care. One that establishes a therapeutic intervention to address the immediate crisis that someone is experiencing, and then creating a discharge plan that links that person to community-based services.”
According to the release, the planned facility will provide behavioral health urgent care to individuals four years or older for up to 24 hours. It will also provide facility-based crisis services for up to two weeks for adults and a peer living room and resource center to support housing, social services, food security, harm reduction, and domestic violence intervention.
Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Jamezetta Bedford explained how the facility will hopefully be more efficient and direct than EMS services, while offering a more supportive environment for those experiencing a crisis.
“It’s easy for the [emergency departments] to get overwhelmed often with people with mental health [crises] and they have to just wait,” Bedford told 97.9 The Hill. “And if they were brought in with law enforcement, [those officers] would have to wait with them. But they often are not admitted — they’re stabilized, given a prescription, and sent back out.
“We’ll have urgent care for people who walk in,” Bedford continued. “We’ll make sure they have referrals to pharmacies right there at the hospital, and connect them with a follow up with transportation.”
Bedford said there is still a lot to work out for the project — including the final sale, staffing the facility and additional partnerships necessary to fill out its resources — but the land purchase is an important step forward. Planning and designing for the facility will begin later this year, with public engagement opportunities throughout the process. A groundbreaking anticipated for the end of 2025, with an opening date slated for early 2027.
Featured photo via the Orange County government/CPL.
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