The nonprofit treatment center New Directions in Pepper Pike has stopped accepting new admissions and announced it would end residential services June 30.
The 45-year-old facility has treated about 10,000 adolescents with substance abuse disorders since it opened in 1981.
The facility operates as a program of Northeast Ohio-based nonprofit Crossroads Health, which said in a press release that New Directions is closing due to “the rapidly shifting funding environment and evolving regulatory requirements.”
Crossroads said current clients would receive a personalized transition plan with other care providers. It also said it would retain some of New Directions’ 28 employees, while others would be “supported in securing meaningful employment with nonprofit organizations offering similar services” around the region.
“No client will be discharged without a plan,” Leslie Quilty, CEO of Crossroads Health, said in the statement.
Funding woes for mental health
The closing comes as mental health facilities across the nation face uncertainties regarding funding and regulations.
“We do see (New Directions’ closure) as an early warning sign,” said Jason Joyce, CEO of the Addiction, Drug Abuse & Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County (ADAMHS Board).
Joyce added: “We are seeing a significant reduction in the number of federal grants available for substance use services — so much so that we recently changed one of our positions internally to no longer have a primary grant writing capacity because there’s not that volume there.”
In January, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) cut nearly $2 billion in grants for nearly 2,000 organizations nationwide. After an outcry from mental health professionals and bipartisan pushback from lawmakers, the administration restored the funding, but impending cuts to Medicaid and Medicare are also expected to decrease access to mental health treatment and funding.
The funding pressures aren’t all at the federal level. Earlier this year, Cuyahoga County cut $4 million from the ADAMHS Board’s budget, causing revisions to plans for a new behavioral health crisis center to open this fall.
“It is a tougher environment,” Joyce said.
Meanwhile, the mental health care providers that remain are being stretched thin, said Becky Carroll of the Health Policy Institute for Ohio, a Columbus-based think tank focusing on state health policy decisions.
“There are only 365 child and adolescent psychiatrists practicing in Ohio,” Carroll said. “So that is about one for every 7,000 kids. But we see workforce shortages across all levels of mental health care.”
However, there are still resources available for kids and teens requiring mental health services. Carroll said the 988 suicide and crisis line is an effective resource for people in mental health emergencies.
“There was just a study that came out a few months ago that found that (988) decreased youth suicides by 11%, which is just huge,” Carroll said. “And in states that had higher utilization of 988, they saw a bigger decrease.”
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call or text the Frontline Suicide & Services Lifeline at 988.
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