ROCKINGHAM — There are still a few hoops to jump through before the Comprehensive Behavioral Health Care Center under construction at the intersection of Old Aberdeen Road and U.S. 1 North can begin providing services, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the process longer.

The facility was scheduled to be completed by January 2020 when construction began in February 2019. As it stands now, most of the exterior is finished an 95% of the interior work is finished, according to Victoria Whitt, CEO of the Sandhills Center, which owns the facility.

“The spread of COVID-19 is slowing down our timeline for completion of the facility,” Whitt said in an email. “While construction is an essential service permitted to continue during the statewide stay-at-home order, we are working with the contractor to honor the spirit of the order and allow subcontractors social distancing space while working in the building.”

Once construction is completed, the North Carolina Division of Health Services Regulation must review the building. At that point, Daymark Recovery Services can begin to obtain licenses for the services it will provide there, according to Whitt.

“Once those steps are complete, we will be in a position to announce a start date for services,” Whitt said.

The new facility will absorb the Rockingham Daymark location’s Outpatient Services. Daymark will provide all the services there. It will have 16 beds for inpatient care of children and adolescents, 12 observation chairs for people of any age who are in crisis and will provide outpatient care. The staff will accept patients for observation 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be able to observe them for as many as 23 hours.

Whitt told the Daily Journal in 2018 that the facility will relieve strain on law enforcement who often are tied up for an indefinite amount of time because they have to take patients in need of mental health assessments to a hospital emergency room and wait for them to be released for security purposes.

At the new facility there will be on-site law enforcement, allowing the arresting agency to bring in the patients and then leave, according to Whitt.

“Sandhills Center and Daymark have started conversations with law enforcement, FirstHealth and other local stakeholders to discuss admission criteria for the facility, flow of individuals into and discharging from the facility and availability of community services for step down transitions,” Whitt said. “We appreciate the supportive relationships that exist among behavioral health providers in the community and look forward to incorporating these into the success of the new center.”

The facility secured a $1 million state grant to cover start-up costs and $4.5 million in financing from Sandhills for construction. The roughly $3 million in operating costs will come mostly from Medicaid, Whitt told the Daily Journal in 2018.

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Gavin Stone

News Editor

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2673 or [email protected].