Who wins? Urgent Recovery Center on the horizon

Jun. 15—New resources for those who experience a mental health crisis are coming to Cleveland County, but for now it's unclear who will administer them.

The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is planning to expand urgent recovery centers across the state — at least one in every county — by end of 2024, according to practitioners who met with city and county leaders in Norman on Wednesday.

Lighthouse Behavioral Wellness Centers is among the behavioral health providers whose programs include the centers.

Jessica Pfau, the organization's chief executive, said the centers are for people experiencing a mental health problem but do not fit the criteria for an involuntary order for hospitalization or a crisis center.

Lighthouse, which operates programs in nine counties mostly south of Cleveland County, plans to submit a proposal to become the state's provider in the county, Pfau said.

Central Oklahoma Mental Health Center (COMHC) is the state's provider for mental health services in Cleveland County, but does not operate an urgent recovery center, according to its website.

Proposals are due to the state agency by June 29.

Norman City Manager Darrel Pyle said he asked Lighthouse to speak about the urgent recovery centers before either he or the organization was aware the mental health department would issue a request for proposal, or RFP, which was posted last week.

Some who attended the meeting at the Norman Regional Health System education center on Porter Avenue questioned what would become of the county's existing provider if it did not win the bid.

"It's a state-run entity, so they will affectively lose that contract," Pfau said. "Whoever wins the RFP would then be awarded that contract and come in."

Lighthouse is a nonprofit with numerous income streams from private insurance, federal grants, Medicaid, and additional funding it receives as the state's provider in other counties.

Its $35 million annual budget is set to burgeon to $50 million, Pfau said.

That means improvement to any system the organization takes over, but it would not mean displacing employees, she said.

"Honestly, any smart person would come in and see that there's already a staff of people doing the job here," Pfau said. "I think whoever comes in, they're going to be thrilled because they're going to get raises, they're going to get benefits they've never seen before and their buildings are going to be updated. "That change is going to be felt in the community, but that's going to take awhile."

What is Lighthouse?

Lighthouse programs are used to divert people in crisis from incarceration and emergency medical care when treatment can be administered in an urgent recovery center, or its other programs such as outpatient care and crisis centers.

The organization hired a former law enforcement officer to act as a liaison to local police and sheriff's departments in the counties Lighthouse operates. Pfau said the liaison has helped educate staff and law enforcement to respond better to people in crisis.

Cary Bryant, a former Norman police officer turned Cleveland County Detention Center administrator, said he has been in several urgent recovery centers around the state and was impressed by the ability to get people the right response.

Often people will call 911 and get transported to an emergency room when they run out of medication for their mental health treatment, Bryant noted as an example of the wrong response.

"If they engage that system just because they know they're out of that medication," Bryant said. "Or they don't know where to go next, but a URC is someplace they can go that's safe, where they know they can talk to someone and maybe not involve law enforcement and get an outpatient appointment set up. It gives a 24/7 option."

Most outpatient services, apart from urgent recovery centers or crisis centers, operate during business hours, Pfau pointed out.

Ritchie Splitt, CEO of Norman Regional Health System, said an urgent recovery center would be helpful for everyone involved.

"That would create a tremendous benefit to the health system overall, because of the impact to wait times," Splitt said. "And these are often repeat customers, if you will. If there's an alternate location where they can receive that care that doesn't require an emergency room visit, that's going to be helpful to the entire community, not just that individual."

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable lawsuits for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.