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Baptist Health celebrates virtual groundbreaking of Thrive Center

Richmond Register - 4/7/2022

Apr. 7—Baptist Health Richmond and local community leaders helped celebrate a "virtual" groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the new Thrive Center at Baptist Health.

In December 2022, an 11-bed behavioral health inpatient service will open —Thrive Center at Baptist Health. In addition, the emergency department will undergo renovations to add three behavioral health exam rooms to treat patients experiencing a mental health crisis.

In 2021, the behavioral health team at Baptist Health Richmond cared for over 8,000 behavioral health patients, 2,000 of which were new patients and over 400 of these patients required transport to an inpatient facility outside of Madison County.

Because of this, Thrive Center at Baptist Health will provide an interdisciplinary team approach to behavioral health treatment to care for patients and their families. Services will include psychiatric evaluation and treatment, individual, group and family therapy and psychoeducation, individualized treatment and aftercare planning, therapeutic recreational activities, access to peer support and case management and referrals to community resources, according to a former Register article.

On Wednesday, the hospital released a video which contained testimonials and statements from several individuals.

One of whom was President of Baptist Health Richmond Greg Gerard, who said the facility on the Richmond campus is expected to open in December 2022.

"We are excited that we will address the in-patient needs of patients who need that short stay intervention, because, sadly, those that are presented to us who need an in-patient stay, we had to send them out of the community," Gerard said. "Often we had to send them out of the region, and sadly, sometimes, out of the state taking that patient away from their family, their friends, and their support group. But today that changes."

A patient named Rhea Monty, who utilizes all of the behavioral services at Baptist Health Richmond, spoke about the new Thrive Center.

Monty moved to Madison County from Wisconsin in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. In her testimonial, she shared she dealt with chronic illness and mental health issues since high school, which have been overwhelming at times, but she continues to go to treatment.

"Since I moved to Kentucky I did have a couple of issues with body image and some pretty severe depression at times where I was admitted twice to in-patient and once I was discharged, the team that has helped me through it has been alongside me and walked it with me and helped me if I needed to call," she said.

Now, to be able to find the help she needs in the community she resides in, she won't have to drive, and does not have to worry about the need to drive to get help.

"If I need the help, I can call and get it because it is right here in the community," she said. "Where I don't have to travel to the other side of Kentucky to get the help I need."

Madison County Judge Executive Reagan Taylor thanked Monty for sharing her story, and said it was important for everyone to share their story so that others can listen.

He related this to the ongoing drug epidemic.

"This drug epidemic is one of the biggest scourges faced in Madison County," Taylor began. "It touches so many lives in so many ways. This drug epidemic does not discriminate. Since I have been here in 2015, we have brought a lot of awareness to this drug epidemic and how it affects our community."

He said the drug problem affected law enforcement, local government, the jail, the school system, and medical system.

"When your recidivism rates in your jail are 85% for drug related crimes, we are not going to be able to incarcerate our way out of this drug epidemic. I am so grateful for Baptist Health Richmond and their leadership," Taylor said.

He told a story of asking a young woman what the community needed to do to address substance use disorder and behavior health problems in the county.

"She said, 'The biggest problem is that society looks at us like we are bad people that need to be good. When in reality, we are sick people that need to be well.' I am so thankful for the leadership at Baptist Health Richmond for being a part of making sick people, well," the judge said.

Richmond Police Department Chief Rodney Richardson followed Taylor and said behavioral health services are super important in the community.

"We as law enforcement know this community needs services to provide services to our citizens, and we are super excited to announce that Baptist Health Richmond will now include in-patient services with their expansion at their facility," Richardson said.

Katelyn Arvin, the clinic manager at Baptist Health Behavioral Services said she has looked forward to the Thrive Center and advocated mental health is in fact, health.

"We are thrilled to help celebrate the groundbreaking of the Thrive Center," Arvin said. ... "We cannot wait to come together again at the end of this calendar year to celebrate the grand opening of the Thrive Center at Baptist Health."

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