BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery services opened two new psychiatric health facilities on Wednesday to help people stay in Kern County and receive treatment faster.
- Video shows tour of two new psychiatric health facilities in Kern county
- Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery services opened two new psychiatric health facilities on Wednesday to help people stay in Kern County and receive treatment faster.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, you might spend time in this room at the new Kern Psychiatric Health Facility.
This center and the first-of-its-kind Youth facility next door are keeping people in Kern County receiving treatment.
A home away from home during someone’s most difficult moments...that’s the environment Robyn Taylor with Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery Serves hoped to create with their two new psychiatric health facilities.
“And have this hopeful, healing environment that promotes wellness and discussion and makes them feel comfortable,” Taylor said.
The two new facilities offer 16 beds for youth and 16 beds for adults, expanding care for adults in the community and creating a new treatment space for kids in Kern.
“There really isn’t a place like this yet. This is new to Kern County,” Carrie Wombacher, the administrator at the Kern Youth Psychiatric Health Facility.
Taylor says the county desperately needs these new spaces because of such high demand in our area.
In the last fiscal year, Kern BHRS reports approximately 2000 adult hospitalizations and 600 youth hospitalizations.
“We have people waiting sometimes days to receive this level of inpatient treatment in our community right now,” Taylor said.
On average 45% of adults and 62% of youth wait over 23 hours to receive an inpatient bed.
That need means there is a delay in care and sometimes BHRS even sends patients out of the county to receive treatment.
“We don’t want to send our youth out of county away from their families," she said. "They need their family’s support, and we want to make sure we’re keeping our youth in Kern County so they can stay with their support system and get the care they need as quickly as possible.”
The new facilities will help.
“We'll be able to get people in quicker and reduce the number of individuals that we have to send out of county, especially with our youth.”
Kern BHRS expects operations to begin sometime this summer.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
