It’s no secret that Nevada has done a dismal job caring for the mental health of its residents. Some mental health care ratings put the Silver State at dead last. We top the lists for adolescent and adult suicides and deaths by drug overdose.
One local facility is hoping to change that trend. Reno Behavioral Healthcare Hospital recently opened its doors with 124 beds.
“Northern Nevada is a rapidly growing community but woefully underserved,” said hospital CEO Steve Shell. “We do have a lot of challenges in the state. Our goal is to raise the standard of care and give people another option for their treatment that has been lacking for many years.”
RBH received its license to operate and received full accreditation by a national organization. Its new south Reno facility is modeled after a similar one in Las Vegas owned by parent company, Signature Healthcare Services, based in Corona, Calif.
The hospital offers inpatient and outpatient services for all ages.
“We focus on mental health and addiction issues,” Shell said. He added that its facility is “state of the art. We want people to have choices for their treatment. There are a lot of residents that go outside of Nevada for their treatment, and we’d like to be able to provide them a quality option here locally.”
Renown is also expanding its mental health care efforts. The hospital’s new Stacie Mathewson Behavioral Health and Addiction Institute “will focus on expanding community access to prevention and intervention services for mental health disorders and … addiction,” according to the hospital.
Philanthropist Mathewson is donating $6 million to the Renown Health Foundation to create the institute. The hospital indicated that the money would go establish a facility for detox, stabilization, evaluation, and prevention and recovery programs.
“We know that understanding substance abuse and addition is a complex problem,” said Renown CEO Tony Slonim. “There are genetic links that increase the risk of mental illness and substance abuse. We have to better understand these links.”
Shell said that RBH has a 24-hour call-in center and encourages people in crisis to call: 775-393-2200.
