In order to stop pressure on police and supply a place for people in mental health crisis, Metro Health Department and Mental Health Cooperative announced plans to build a mental health "ER".
As the Nashville population grew, city officials looked for ways to help a new problem of Metro Police spending many hours on mental health patients. This new 'psychiatric emergency room' could be the answer they're looking for.
The $3 million facility will be a place police can drop off patients dealing with mental health issues for immediate treatment.
"The problem is, the population has continued to grow, those resources haven't grown to keep up with the demand," said Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs Amanda Bracht. "As our city continues to grow at an enormous rate, you're going to have people with mental illness, who have substance abuse issues and they need to get rapid treatment, or they are going to end up in our jails, in our emergency rooms waiting for days on end for treatment."
The mayor's office signed off on plans to run the facility, which is meant to help battle a growing addiction problem as well.
The facility will cost about $5.3 million to operate annually.
Their goal is to have police officers in and out in under 10 minutes. Currently, officers can spend their entire shift dealing with one mental health patient. Often times, patients with mental health needs are taken to jail rather than a facility to treat their problems.
"When somebody's suffering from mental illness, and they're in crisis, a lot of times families are frustrated, they don't know what to do. Sometimes there is behavior that makes people really feel the need to call police for assistance. A lot of time, these people really need treatment. They don't really need to be kept in jail," said Metro Health Department Director Dr. William Paul.
The facility will be able to house 20 people, adding to the 23 current beds Mental Health Cooperative currently operates.
