A behavioral health urgent care center will open on April 27 in Lumberton. It offers crisis services around the clock to adults and children over 4 who face mental health or substance misuse emergencies. The center at 105 Farmbrook Drive can serve up to 12 patients at once with same-day treatment, evaluations for substance use disorders, drug withdrawal management, and telehealth resources.
Staff will triage and assess patients within 15 minutes of arrival. Anyone can access services. Even those without insurance.
“We believe that this is a place where someone comes in at their worst moment in life and has a safe place to decompress and get the resources they need,” said Anthony Grimaldi, chief innovation officer for Southeastern Integrated Care, per Borderbelt.
Grimaldi said the center should lessen what hospitals like UNC Health Southeastern and Scotland Health Care System must do when patients arrive in behavioral health crises.
“Local hospitals probably see nine to 10 psychiatric patients a day walking into that emergency room,” Grimaldi said. “Most of those could be managed here to free up the capacity of the emergency room for other medical issues.”
Staff can conduct initial evaluations for involuntary commitment assessments, which often require law enforcement officers to wait hours with those being evaluated. The new location will cut down on how many people get housed in the detention center, which is above capacity by over 100 people.
Trillium Health Resources and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services gave $2 million to build the urgent care and cover start-up costs. The money is part of a $16 million allocation from the state legislature to create or expand behavioral health urgent care facilities.