On June 19, St. David’s Foundation awarded Integral Care $1.6 million to support operations at the Judge Guy Herman Center for Mental Health Crisis Care, which provides short-term emergency psychiatric crisis care for adults in a secure, protected residential environment before making a safe return to the community.

St. David’s Foundation has been instrumental in bringing this essential service to our community. In 2014, the foundation awarded Integral Care a capital grant to build a new mental health crisis center that would reduce strain on local emergency departments, reduce costs of care, and divert individuals experiencing a mental health crisis from jail. Three years later, Integral Care opened the Herman Center.

Since opening in 2017, the Herman Center has filled a critical gap in the local mental health safety net by offering additional psychiatric emergency beds in our community for those who do not require inpatient treatment. During a short-term stay, people can access services including crisis assessment, crisis stabilization and extended observation, medications, individual and group therapy, peer services, nursing services, case management, discharge planning, and linkage to ongoing care and additional community resources.

From July 2018 through May 2019, the Herman Center served 1,747 individuals, the majority of whom were referred by emergency departments or law enforcement. With the Herman Center in our community’s continuum of care, we can ensure that psychiatric crisis treatment is always available in the most appropriate and cost‐effective setting.

Learn more about St. David’s Foundations 2019 summer grants here.