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Center to tackle mental health issues in shadow of opioid crisis

Capital - 6/9/2017

With mental health and drug addiction overlapping and concerns growing in Maryland, a newly opened facility on the grounds of the former Crownsville Hospital Center will try to tackle addicts' underlying psychiatric needs.

County dignitaries and medical professionals cut the ribbon on the Pascal Crisis Stabilization Center, a 5,000-square-foot, 16-bed facility intended to offer those with underlying mental health issues an option for treatment outside of hospital emergency rooms.

The center was made possible by $225,000 in state grant money that was caught up in years of "red tape and quagmires," said Katherine Bonincontri, executive director of Robert A. Pascal Youth and Family Services.

The political and financial aid of former Maryland Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene Nelson Sabatini and former County Executive Robert Pascal got the program off the ground, she said.

Those admitted, Bonincontri said, will receive an immediate psychiatric evaluation as part of a potential 23-hour review. If necessary, the center can then spend an additional five to 10 days working with patients to stabilize their mental condition.

"We are, in a lot of ways, psychiatric urgent care," she said.

The center is leasing a building in the abandoned psychiatric hospital for $1 a year as part of a deal with the state.

While the facility will concentrate on mental health, many officials at Thursday's ribbon-cutting focused on the county's growing opioid problem.

A study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 39.1 percent of adults who reported a substance abuse disorder also suffered from a mental illness.

Statistics for 2016 newly released by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show a jump in heroin and opioid-related deaths for the county and the state. Anne Arundel County had the state's third-highest number of heroin-related deaths for the year: 105.

There were 488 reported opioid-related overdoses in the county as of May 31 - a 25 percent increase over the same period in 2016.

County Executive Steve Schuh said the center "fills a really important void in our system of inpatient care for people who are suffering from addiction in Anne Arundel County, as we try to face down this historic challenge of heroin and opioid addiction."

Jennifer Corbin, director of the county's Crisis Response System, which aids police response to reported drug overdoses, said the center will not change the way emergency responders handle overdoses.

Those having overdoses will still be given naloxone - a drug that counters the immediate symptoms - and treated at a local hospital before they are released to the center or other related resources, Corbin said.

Joyce Maloney, a representative of state Sen. Ed Reilly, R-Crofton, said she remembers when the Crownsville psychiatric hospital was in active use. Now, many of the brick buildings have broken windows, and potholes litter old parking lots and neglected roads.

"I used to be a volunteer when this was a vibrant space," Maloney said.

The closing of the hospital in 2004, she said, left a gap in local treatment options for the region's mental health patients.

"Everyone went to (Dimensions Behavioral Health in) Laurel for the longest time," she said.

Bonincontri said the new center will look to try to meet a need that more and more medical and mental health professionals have identified as critical.

Credit: By Phil Davis - pdavis@capgaznews.com

Caption: Former county executive and philanthropist Robert A. Pascal listens as he is thanked for contributing to the opening of the center on the grounds of the former Crownsville Hospital Center.

President and Executive Director of Robert A. Pascal Youth and Family Services Katherine Bonincontri speaks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Pascal Crisis Stabilization Center in Crownsville on Thursday.

photos by Joshua McKerrow/Capital Gazette