Groundbreaking: DeWine attends groundbreaking for behavioral health urgent care center

(Photo by Gage Vota, Special to The Times)
Ground is broken on the future site of the behavioral health urgent care center in St. Clairsville. Pictured from left to right are Coleman Health Services Chief Officer Kasey Osselborn, Coleman Health Services CEO Hattie Tracy, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Mental Health and Recovery Board Executive Director Lisa Ward and Mental Health and Recovery Board Chairwoman Deb Yeater.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ground was broken and anticipation built as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine attended the groundbreaking last week at the future site of a behavioral health urgent care center that will serve Belmont, Harrison and Monroe counties.

The center will be a joint venture with Coleman Health Services, the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Belmont, Harrison and Monroe counties and the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

“This is an amazing project that will add a crisis stabilization unit to the community while also including a 24/7 crisis assessment walk-in center and a place for our mobile crisis teams,” Coleman Health Services President and CEO Hattie Tracy said.

The facility is the first of its kind in the three communities and is part of DeWine’s $90 million investment to strengthen local behavioral health crisis response services.

“We are providing a variety of behavioral health services for the community at the location and treating substance use, related addiction, bipolar depressive disorders, trauma and stress-related problems, as well as anxiety disorders,” Tracy said. “We are also providing other services such as assistance in obtaining benefits, housing, employment and other recovery support.”

DeWine said the groundbreaking was a historic day because he hears too often that someone is having a mental health crisis and isn’t able to receive the care needed due to a long wait, sometimes spanning up to two months. He added that, 60 years ago, the final bill President John F. Kennedy signed before his assassination was the Community Mental Health Act, which promised that every citizen in the country would have access to mental health care.

DeWine believes the country has not lived up to that promise, but said he is proud of the leaps the nation and Ohio have taken for mental health since.

“We’re delighted that this is being taken on, and we’re just happy that we’re moving forward with this project,” he said.

Dewine thanked State Reps. Don Jones, R-Freeport, and Ron Ferguson, R-Wintersville, and State Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, for their collective support of the project.

“For families in Eastern Ohio, this is a good day, this is a step forward. For the state of Ohio, this is one more step forward. We are doing locations like this around the state. It’s going to get them built and get them manned but we are making real progress,” DeWine said. “Our goal for every Ohio resident is for them to be able to live up to their God-given potential. And for them to live up to their God-given potential, barriers have to be removed.”

The barriers he believes need to be removed are the lack of treatment for people with active addiction and untreated mental health problems. He said that if they’re not getting help it’s very difficult for them to live up to their full potential and not only do they suffer but their families suffer as well.

“This building is about hope,” DeWine said.