Finding a convenient place for mental health services will now be a little easier for Prince George’s County residents, with a new behavioral health center opening in Lanham, Maryland.
“Our community is in crisis, and we are in deep pain,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said during the grand opening of the Luminis Health Behavioral Health Center.
“Prince George’s County ordered a community health needs assessment, and this assessment identified behavioral health as a leading health priority for Prince George’s County.”
Currently, there are only two such facilities for the nearly 1 million people in the county. Many residents who seek mental health care in Prince George’s County have to go to D.C. or a neighboring Maryland county. The other option for many is a visit to the emergency room.
“Episodic mental health care delivered through an emergency room is not the best way to treat,” said Deneen Richmond, the president of Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center.
The 31,000-square-foot facility will feature an outpatient mental health center, behavioral health walk-in urgent care, a psychiatric day treatment program, an eight-bed addiction residential service area and a substance use disorder intensive outpatient treatment program.
Those services will be available to the public in the coming weeks.
In early 2023, it will open a 16-bed adult inpatient psychiatric unit on the second floor.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the Prince George’s County Council shifted $20 million from the building of a public safety training facility towards the construction of the behavioral health center.
