LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A new medical center in the Las Vegas Valley will offer immediate mental healthcare and addiction support to homeless people in need, helping fill a gap for services that’s crucial to get people healthy and permanently off the streets.
The “Crisis Stabilization Center,” in a medical building in the northeast Valley, will open in December and offer 24 inpatient beds and 30 outpatient beds.
County officials are still working to determine how patients will be referred to the facility, but the center is designed to provide voluntary medical support for those who require intensive mental health support or assistance to end addiction.
The medical building was purchased by Clark County for $10 million. The facility will be run by providers from UMC, and can provide services to people with or without insurance.
Treatment and a stay can last anywhere from two weeks to a month; from there, patients can stay off the streets and get placed in transitional housing or assisted living. People can continue to receive medical care through social services and eventually get support to obtain employment.
“Sheltering sometimes can be in and out and not as permanent,” County Manager Kevin Schiller said. “How do we get them into services and get them stabilized? “ Schiller said.
“If they enter and we’re able to stabilize them over that brief period, what it basically does is it starts to create some reality for them in terms of some permanency,” he said. “This is just an entry point with very formalized services. We’re going to case manage them. We can get them on insurance,” Schiller said.
Schiller hopes to eventually create four centers across the Valley for access.
Serving Love Las Vegas is a volunteer effort created by Sherry Gour, and volunteers go to the streets of Downtown and provide food, water and supplies to the unhoused. She has gotten to know many over the years, and urges people to have compassion on them: many are suffering from a lack of medical care and mental healthcare.
“There’s a huge percentage of our homeless community that has mental illness. The challenge is them getting to their medication. They’re on foot. There’s a lot of facilities, for addicts, but for mental health, there’s just not enough,” Gour said.
To donate supplies to Serving Love Las Vegas, email lloveinthelord@gmail.com.
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