The largest community mental health provider in North Texas is expanding its services in West Dallas.
Metrocare on Thursday unveiled its new $96 million campus in the Hillside neighborhood near I-30 and Westmoreland Road.
The Mental Health and Disability Innovation Center is expected to increase Metrocare’s capacity to serve by almost 25%. The organization is Dallas County’s primary behavioral health services provider, serving about 50,000 children and adults annually.
Dr. John Burruss, Metrocare’s CEO, said the campus is a critical investment in an area of health care that’s becoming a large public health concern. It’s the second new space Metrocare has opened this year.
“One of the few areas of medicine that's going backwards, that's not making great success is mental health care,” Burruss said. “We have to be ready as a society to start to look at why. If you tell people, ‘Don’t be upset about it, go get help,’ you have to give them help. If you say, ‘Overcome the stigma to receive help,’ we have to have an open door for them to walk into.”
The facility is expected to open to the public in about a month. It includes a 45,000-square-foot clinical space and a 98,000-square-foot client services space.
“This will revolutionize the way we address [mental health] issues, particularly for people who don't have many assets in life, who don't have the education or the background in mental health that helps them move forward by themselves,” Burruss said. “We’re also going to deliver services that are educationally based.”
The client services space will increase Metrocare’s capacity to educate and train providers, as well as develop programs to address mental health needs across the county.
The clinical space is designed to serve all ages through three individual clinics.
The Early Child Intervention Services and Behavioral Treatment center allows Metrocare to provide consolidated services for children with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues, which it couldn’t provide in previous spaces.
“They'll be in the same building,” Burruss said. “They'll walk the same halls. The treatment providers will be in this same place.”
The campus also increases the tools providers can utilize in treatment, he said, such as a therapeutic playground.
“When you're a kid, your job is to play and learn,” Burruss said. “We need ... an environment where they can play and learn while we're helping them progress.”
The space also houses the children and adolescent clinic, which serves children 3 to 18 years old.
Regina Walker, director of Child and Adolescent Services with Metrocare, said the organization will provide specialty care, such as treatment for complex trauma. The space also includes an adult services clinic for anyone over the age of 18, an on-site pharmacy to make medication more accessible and community-based service clinicians.
“They go out in the community and meet them in community-based locations and service them in schools, churches, homes, and provide clinical services there as well,” she said.
Walker started at Metrocare 14 years ago as a provider. She said it’s been emotional watching the organization work on projects like the Hillside campus.
“It's just an awesome thing to see how we have transformed as an agency,” Walker said. “And how we are really pushing and striving to meet the needs of the community, fill service gaps and provide services to those individuals.”
And now is a particularly critical time to address those needs, according to providers and experts. With funding cuts to critical programs like Medicaid and confusion caused by changes to state and federal policy, Burruss said there's a lot of uncertainty affecting the health care industry and patients. That uncertainty is something mental health professionals have to take into account when providing services.
“That breeds the climate in which people struggle with depression, anxiety, drinking too much, using too many illicit drugs,” Burruss said. “Those are the populations that we want to step in and help. In that uncertainty, we’ll provide the open door for them even in the face of that.”
The goal of the campus is to further Metrocare’s goal to intervene effectively by providing a place for someone to go, he said, either remotely or by walking into the building.
“We have effective services, but the biggest limits has been people being able to get them,” Burruss said. “Metrocare fills a niche that very few do because we'll see people today. We see people on the same day. If you've realized that you really are at the point where you need our help, all you have to do is show up.”
Walker said the value of the Mental Health and Disability Innovation Center is that it provides a space where everyone in a family can receive care.
“Mental health services are for everyone,” Walker said. “Everyone could benefit from mental health services. There is no age, gender or specific person that meets the criteria for the service.”
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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