South Salt Lake – The new mental health care facility aims to create new pathways for emergency care, replacing people with mental health issues with a crisis in the event of a crisis and heading to the emergency room.
According to Dr. Bob Carter, CEO of University Health, Kem and Carolyn Gardner Crisis Care Center at 900 W. 3300 South, the first in the US to make its kind. The facility, which will be open to patients on Monday, will provide walk-in services and will not reject patients, he said.
Crisis Center aims to provide the highest quality mental health care, Carter said it helps train mental health clinicians and leaders. He said it is inspiring the way Utahns have come together to create this resource.
“We reverse the trends in high suicide rates and other challenges that affect our states and many other states in this country. We make care better available. We provide the best clinical care available. We will continue to advance that care through research and innovation and train the next generation,” Carter said.
The new facility is part of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, which provides a path to recovery for patients suffering from a variety of disabilities and illnesses.
In particular, one is Russell Belt, who was 26 years old and lost control due to alcohol abuse. Belt eventually ended up in the emergency room, and then he surrendered himself to the care of patients at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, taking the first steps to recover and change his life.
“He didn’t want to be defined by his addiction to alcohol,” Carter said.
Belt attended a ritual ribbon cutting on Friday, encouraged her mental health to undergo treatment.
“Don’t wait, don’t wait. It’s here. The resources are amazing. You’ll get the care you need,” Belt said.
He said when someone is in crisis it is a life and death situation. Belt said he had nowhere else at the time, but was still alive for the care he received at Huntsman. He said if the crisis center was there when it needed help, he could have had better results and had the care he needed earlier.
Belt shares that the new building is very different from where he stayed during recovery, and says he feels “like a home” or “like a warm embrace.”
The facility is expected to serve between 25 and 35 walk-in patients a day, with 24 hospitalized patients as well.
Support of state and county governments
Rep. Steve Eliason of R-Sandy said Hope was recently given a new phone number in the form of an emergency mental health hotline number. And now he has a new location in the new facility, which he calls the “campus of hope,” and is the first of many dreams to fulfill.
Suzanne Harrison, a woman with Salt Lake County Council, spoke about helping a man in need of mental health care when he was brought to police in the emergency room while in medical school. She said it took the man hours for him to get his rating. She also learned that emergency rooms are not designed for mental health emergencies.
“It takes courage to ask for help. This is a place where anyone can come and they’ll find a professional staff who really cares and is ready to help,” Harrison said.
Salt Lake County has donated more than $6 million to fund the building along with the land built on it to bring crisis care to county residents.
Salt Lake County Council’s Amy Winder Newton said he was involved in the project because he had experience taking his son to the emergency room during a mental health emergency. She expressed her wish that they had facilities like the crisis centre available at the time.
“We look forward to moms and dads throughout our county and we can see where we can take our sons and daughters if they are in crisis,” Newton said.
Lt. Col. Utah, Lieutenant Colonel Dillea Henderson, said he knows despair from being a parent of a teenager with mental problems, a child of someone who deals with substance abuse, a sibling to someone who struggles to live, and a child of a family of someone who attempts suicide and completes suicide.
“I know I’m not alone. We all feel it. We all know the people who felt it. And this facility brings hope, light and peace. And I’m so grateful for the wonderful work that was done. We could do more,” she said.
Henderson said the issue can only be solved by a group of people who care about working with them.
Community donation
Christina Huntsman Durham stood next to her brother David Huntsman and as co-CEOS of the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, people don’t need to suffer quietly or be in the darkness as the crowd gathered in front of the new building.
She spoke about losing her sister to a drug overdose 15 years ago and said she knows what it’s like to deal with detoxification and intake due to mental health issues. She said her story is not unique nationally.
“We’re here to show the nation what national norms will be like in Utah. We’re going to show the nation that we can do things differently here in Utah,” she said.
Kem Gardner, the same name in the building, said he was asked to name the building to show the community’s efforts. He said he believes that only Huntsman can pull away from something like that brings together the community to support such a cause.
“I think the importance of this day is knowing where we should be heading now. People know that there are places they can go when they have the tragedy of our generation, who are mentally ill,” he said.
Suicide Prevention Resources
If you or someone you know is suffering from the idea of suicide, call 988 to connect with 988 suicide and crisis lifelines.
Crisis Hotline
- Huntsman Mental Health Institute Crisis Line: 801-587-3000
- Safeut Crisis Line: 833-372-3388
- 988 988 Lifeline of Suicide and Crisis
- LGBTQ Teen Trevor Project Hotline: 1-866-488-7386
Online Resources
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