Bozeman Health this fall is expected to open a 14-bed unit for adults who need longer-term psychiatric care.
Patients in a mental health crisis can get specialized care through the hospital’s ER now. But director of psychiatric services Nicole Madden says patients who need more than three-days of care have to drive more than a hundred miles.
“The next closest mental health inpatient psychiatric unit is probably Billings, about 135 miles away,” she says.
Madden expects most patients will stay for three to seven days, but says they can be served longer if need be.
She adds the facility could reduce a backlog of inmates at the county jail.
Defendants with a severe mental health condition often need stabilization services before they can stand trial. It’s common for county jails to hold those inmates for months or even a year while they wait for a bed at the state psychiatric hospital.
