Prince George’s County officials celebrated the opening Tuesday of a new behavioral health facility, a project partly funded through federal and state grants to help address the county’s long-standing scarcity of mental and behavioral health care.
The $7.6 million project, at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, includes 22 inpatient beds, as well as outpatient and partial-hospitalization resources. The new facility is expected to begin accepting patients later this month.
“Today is yet another step in our journey to provide access to the comprehensive health care that our residents deserve,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) said at a news conference Tuesday. “And today continues, as well, our increased focus on behavioral health care, a need that has gone long underserved in this community.”
The county, home to just under 1 million residents, has only two other acute-care units for inpatient behavioral health treatment, leaving more than half of adult patients in 2019 to turn to hospitals outside the county, Alsobrooks said. Behavioral health was identified as a leading health priority in a community-needs assessment that year, which found that the county had fewer mental health providers per capita than its neighbors. Prince George’s, a majority-Black suburb, also has fewer physicians and hospital beds per capita, according to state data.
“Our residents deserve to have their dignity preserved, and they deserve to be treated in an environment that promotes and encourages true healing and wellness,” Alsobrooks said. “Today’s grant only gets us closer to that goal.”
The new facility is part of Alsobrooks’s vow to dedicate resources to mental health. Last year, she redirected $20 million to build a behavioral health center in Lanham with funds originally intended for a new police training facility. That decision was part of the county’s response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020 and came during nationwide calls for racial and social justice.
The Lanham facility, at Doctors Community Medical Center, is scheduled to open outpatient services in July. A 16-bed inpatient unit will open in December. Read more at the Washington Post.
Photo: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D). (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
