CTH hopes to open juvenile behavioral health facility in year

Help is on the horizon for juveniles in Carson City and the quad-county area who are struggling with behavioral health — a need widely acknowledged by those on the front lines of community services.

Wednesday, leaders of Carson Tahoe Health told the Appeal that following recent approval by the Nevada Interim Finance Committee, approximately $3.5 million in ARPA funds will be sub-awarded through the state and used by the healthcare network for an “emergency retrofit” of existing facilities on Fleischmann Way in west Carson.

The retrofit will include 10 beds in the old hospital facility for youth inpatient behavioral health; 12 beds for a separate youth crisis stabilization center next to the Mallory Behavioral Health Crisis Center; outpatient offices for youth; and two mobile care units, RVs, to serve throughout the region.

Kitty McKay, community and patient experience administrator at Carson Tahoe, hoped the retrofit would be completed within 12 months. She called it an “emergency retrofit” because of the crisis facing youth in the community.

The main challenge is Carson Tahoe’s Mallory Behavioral Health Crisis Center, which sees roughly 1,500 patient visits a year for suicidal ideation, psychotic episodes and substance abuse problems, only treats adults. This has led to pediatric beds and the emergency room at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in north Carson being full of kids in need of psychiatric care. Patients have ranged from 6-year-olds to teenagers, McKay said.

“The other thing that I think is really important for our community to understand is that this is widespread amongst all the kids,” McKay said. “This is the football stars, the straight-A students, the two-family, upper-middle-class homes, the single-mom kids … it is widespread among all of our kids. And the things that they’re reporting that they’re experiencing, previously to coming to us in crisis and being in inpatient — the degrees of anxiety and depression and lack of self-worth — all these things are so pervasive within all of our youth. It’s just shocking, really.”

McKay said the current crisis mirrors that experienced in the adult population before the Mallory Center was established in 2017. One good development from the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, is people are now more open about mental health challenges. Fighting that stigma is part of Carson Tahoe’s ALIVE initiative.

Unveiled in April, the ALIVE initiative stands for “being Aware, embracing Life, feeling Important, trusting your Voice and uplifting Energy.” The campaign aims to destigmatize mental health challenges, offer mobile therapy through partnerships with schools and community organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Nevada, and develop treatment facilities specifically for youth.

The ultimate goal is a new youth behavioral health facility, previously estimated to cost more than $65 million, but that’s years in the future. In contrast, with the state’s help (McKay praised Gov. Joe Lombardo and lawmakers for prioritizing behavioral health), Carson Tahoe can move forward with the retrofit this year.

Carson Tahoe can’t do it alone, McKay said. She was confident the network could staff the retrofitted spaces but hoped the community would help keep programs sustainable.

“We’re really encouraging anyone out there in the world who wants to heal our kids to join the crusade because this is not Carson Tahoe Health’s problem — our entire community is faced with this monolithic crisis,” she said.

Those wishing to offer support, financial or otherwise, can contact CTH Development Officer Paula Mayer at paula.mayer@carsontahoe.org for information.