Turning Point Counseling breaks ground

By William K. Alcorn

The unit provides counseling and crisis intervention for mentally ill patients.

YOUNGSTOWN — Turning Point Counseling Services, a private nonprofit agency that provides mental health and substance addiction counseling, has broken ground for an addition that will increase the number of inpatient beds in its Crisis Stabilization Unit from 12 to 18.

In addition to the additional six beds, the 1,230-square-foot, $246,000 project, financed on a 50-50 basis by the Mahoning County Mental Health Board and the Ohio Department of Mental Health, will include a group therapy room. The addition is expected to be finished by the end of the year, said Joseph Sylvester, executive director.

The crisis stabilization unit, under the supervision of Pam Price, a registered nurse, provides individual and group counseling and crisis intervention and management for mentally ill patients suffering with conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. It provides the least-restrictive level of care. The next step is the hospital, she said.

The unit is an alternative to hospitalization and is not intended to replace or provide emergency acute inpatient psychiatric treatment. The average length of stay is six days, and may not exceed two weeks, Price said.

The vast majority of the patients in the crisis stabilization unit receive Medicaid or are indigent. Clients with private-pay insurance are rare, she said.

Price said that not only are the beds desperately needed in the community, with numbers of psychiatric beds in acute-care hospitals dwindling, they save the community money.

The county mental health board pays a daily rate of $500 at local hospitals, such as Forum Health and Humility of Mary Health Partners, for mentally ill patients, while the cost per day at the crisis stabilization unit is about $220 per day, said Ronald Marian, executive director of the county mental health board.

Turning Point Counseling, 611 Belmont Ave., opened its doors as Parkview Counseling Center in 1994. When Parkview merged with Eastern Behavioral Health in Struthers in 2003, the named was changed to Turning Point.

“This effort by all involved shows how proud we are of our area. This will help our residents in greatest needs. It’s something positive for the community,” Sylvester added.

alcorn@vindy.com