OKC council approved operators for MAPS 4 Mental Health & Addiction project. Who are they?
The Oklahoma City Council voted Tuesday to select operating partners for long-awaited crisis and restoration centers under the city's multi-project MAPS 4 program.
Councilmembers unanimously approved the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the state's leading agency in tackling mental health and addiction since 1953, as the operator for the first MAPS 4 Crisis Center. The council also approved NorthCare, a nonprofit providing behavioral services throughout central Oklahoma, as the operating partner to manage the program's Restoration Center.
Residents voted in 2019 to allocate $44.6 million for the MAPS 4 Mental Health and Addiction project, which includes two crisis centers, one restoration center and supportive housing.
MAPS 4 Crisis Center No. 1, estimated to cost at least $6 million to complete, is being modeled after an Oklahoma County Crisis Intervention Center already located on 2625 General Pershing Blvd. in Oklahoma City. The new MAPS-budgeted crisis center is expected to include space for assessment, counseling, detoxification, crisis de-escalation, respite and sleep.
“We are proud to partner with Oklahoma City as they help deliver vital mental health services to thousands of people (every) year,” Heath Hayes, deputy commissioner at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, said in a statement Tuesday. “NorthCare is a trusted partner and the (Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic) model ensures clinicians will treat both a person’s physical needs and their mental health issues.”
Needs and Deeds: NorthCare in Oklahoma City
Like the new MAPS 4 crisis center, the new $24.5 million restoration "hub" will replicate the Oklahoma County Crisis Intervention Center, but will be a larger facility with more services provided. AJ Kirkpatrick, director of urban planning at the architectural firm ADG Blatt, also said the new facility would be modeled after a Bexar County Restoration Center in Texas, as well.
The MAPS 4 Restoration Center is expected to include a medical clinic and pharmacy, a public inebriate alternative, a mobile crisis outreach team, supervised methamphetamine detox, substance abuse counseling, wraparound case management and medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction.
“NorthCare is pleased to partner with Oklahoma City to operate the Restoration Center,” NorthCare CEO Randy Tate said in a statement Tuesday. “The facility will support fire and police with a rapid response for mental health and substance use crises.”
The operating partners will work with city management on site selection and approval of architects for both facilities. Design work on the crisis center and the restoration center is expected to start this summer, with construction for both facilities to begin in mid-2025. The crisis center is currently scheduled to open in summer of 2026, and the restoration center would follow in the fall, Kirkpatrick said.
During an earlier presentation of operator agreements to the MAPS 4 citizens advisory board in December, Kirkpatrick also floated the possibility of consolidating the two planned crisis centers into one facility. But board members questioned how only one facility could be built if voters had approved two.
"This is a very elementary explanation, but when MAPS was passed, there was a law that restricted a crisis center to 16 beds, and that’s why we had two," MAPS Program Manager David Todd told The Oklahoman. "That law has gone away, so you can have more than 16 beds in a facility now. So, we can have the same amount of beds in one building, which could be more efficient from a staff level and from a building perspective."
Neither MAPS advisers in December nor city councilmembers this month took official action on Kirkpatrick's recommendation, but it could potentially come up again, as operating agreements for a Crisis Center No. 2 have not yet been unveiled.
More: Mental health treatment facility proposed for MAPS 4 would also help the county jail
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC MAPS 4 mental health, addiction center operators approved Tuesday
