One in five Americans deal with some type of mental health condition every day. That, combined with the growth in the region, add up to an increasing demand for expansion of mental health care. On January 14, Cottonwood Creek Behavioral Hospital will open its doors to the public in Meridian.
“People are already essentially lining up and saying this is desperately needed here and how soon can we send family and patients here for treatment,” Cottonwood Creek Behavioral Hospital CEO Phil Sheridan said.
The 72-bed hospital will provide inpatient and outpatient programs focused on psychiatric and addiction treatment.
“We've really made an effort to touch base with people that we think will be interested in our services,” Sheridan said. “Part of this is about being a community partner and educating people with what's the best and most current treatment approaches to help people who suffer from addiction or mental health problems.”
Haven Behavioral Healthcare owns the hospital and says the new facility will fulfill an unmet need. The facility will be treating adults who may have problems with general mental health conditions, addiction problems or substance abuse problems that are serious enough and require an acute care stay to help them stabilize and improve.
“There’s a general sense that while the demographic in the Treasure Valley has grown, we haven't really had an expansion in services for acute in care beds and I think the time is right,” Sheridan said.
The facility will also help job growth.
“We still end up employing 200 people or so and I think that’s important message to the community that we’re also bringing really valuable work, work that actually makes a difference, work that’s meaningful,” Sheridan said.
Recently, Mental Health America ranked Idaho as one of the worst states for mental health care access overall.