Utahns with mental health needs now have an alternative to the emergency room

SOUTH SALT LAKE — A new mental health care facility aims to forge new pathways in emergent health care, giving people with mental health issues an alternative to going to the emergency room in a crisis.

The Kem and Carolyn Gardner Crisis Care Center, 900 W. 3300 South, is the first of its kind in the United States, an example for other areas on how to provide the highest quality mental health care, according to Dr. Bob Carter, CEO at University Health. The facility, opening Monday to patients, will provide walk-in service and will not refuse patients, he said.

The crisis center aims to provide the highest quality mental health care, Carter said, and help train more clinicians and leaders in mental health. He said it is inspiring how Utahns came to gather to create this resource.

"We'll reverse the trends of high suicide rates and other challenges that affect our state and many other states in this country. We're going to make access to care better. We're going to provide the best clinical care available. We're going to continue to advance that care through research and innovation, and we're going to train the next generation," Carter said.

The new facility is part of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, which provides avenues for recovery to patients struggling with a variety of disorders and illnesses.

One, in particular, said Carter, is Russell Belt, who was spiraling out of control at age 26 due to alcohol abuse. Belt eventually found himself in the emergency room, and he subsequently admitted himself to in-patient care at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and took his first step toward recovery and changing his life.

"He did not want to be defined by his addiction to alcohol," Carter said.

Belt, who attended the ceremonial ribbon-cutting Friday, encouraged others struggling with mental health to get treatment.

"Don't wait, don't wait. It's here, the resources are amazing. You'll get the care that you need," Belt said.

He said when someone is in crisis, it is a life-or-death situation. Belt said he had nowhere else to turn at the time and is still alive because of the care he received at Huntsman. He said if the crisis center had been there when he needed help, he may have had a better outcome and would have received needed care faster.

Belt shared that the new building is very different from where he stayed while recovering, saying it feels more personable — "like home," or "like a warm hug."

The facility is expected to serve 25 to 35 walk-in patients a day and will also have 24 inpatient beds.

State and county government support

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, said hope, in the form of the emergency mental health hotline number, was recently given a new phone number — and now, it has a new location at the new facility, which he called a "campus of hope" and the first of the fulfillment of many dreams.

Salt Lake County Councilwoman Suzanne Harrison talked about helping a man who was brought in by police and needed mental health treatment at an emergency room while in medical school. She said it took hours for the man to get an assessment. She also learned that emergency rooms are not designed for mental health emergencies.

"Asking for help takes courage, and this is a place where anyone can come and they will find expert staff that truly care and are ready to help," Harrison said.

Salt Lake County donated over $6 million to fund the building, along with the land it is built on, to bring crisis care to the county's residents.

Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton said she got involved in the project because of an experience taking her son to the emergency room in a mental health emergency. She expressed a wish that they had a facility like the crisis center available at the time.

"I look forward to moms and dads all over our county, being able to know where they can take their sons and daughters if they're in crisis," Newton said.

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said she knows the despair from being a parent of a teenager with mental issues, of being the child of someone dealing with substance abuse, being a sibling of someone who is struggling to live and being a family member of someone who has attempted suicide and completed suicide.

"I know I'm not alone. All of us have felt that. All of us know people who have felt that, and this facility brings hope, and light and peace. And I'm so grateful for the great work that's been done. We've got a lot more to do," she said.

Henderson said the issue can only be solved with a group of people who care working together.

Community donations

Christena Huntsman Durham stood next to her brother, David Huntsman, as co-CEOs of the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, as she told the crowd gathered in front of the new building that people don't need to suffer silently or be in the dark — they can be treated in light and with dignity, and their recovery can be celebrated.

She talked about losing her sister 15 years ago to a drug overdose and said she knows what it is like to deal with detoxing or intake for a mental health issue. She said her story is not unique in the country.

"We're going to show here in Utah what the national norm is going to be. We are going to show the country that here in Utah we can do things differently," she said.

Kem Gardner, the building's namesake, said he was asked to put his name on the building to show community effort. He said he thinks only the Huntsmans could pull off something like gathering a community to support a cause like this one.

"I think the importance of this day is that we know now where to turn, people know there's a place where they can go when they have the scourge of our generation which is mental illness," he said.

Correction: In an earlier version, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson's name was incorrectly spelled Diedre.

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