Ilinois’ Rosecrance Opens Highly Innovative New Dual Diagnosis Center

A New Kind of Emergency Room

In essence, Mulberry will be a new kind of emergency room. The Rosecrance Mulberry Center, located in a renovated and expanded building in downtown Rockford, will open on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. The center brings under one roof crisis services that Rosecrance already offers at separate locations in the city. Said long-time Rosecrance CEO Phil Eaton in a prepared statement: “The Rosecrance Mulberry Center allows us to serve people in crisis in a comfortable, non-threatening environment and move them to the appropriate level of care very quickly, and the best level of care might be just down the hallway in the same building. This program is both clinically sound and fiscally efficient, and it is one of a kind in Illinois.” It also offers short term housing while a long-term plan is developed to help those in trouble and, hopefully, the new Mulberry Center can become a national type model for dealing in a MUCH more efficient way with those suffering from mental health and addictions problems – as we said above it is impossible to treat one without the other usually so great is the co-morbidity – than in medical surgical emergency rooms ill equipped to deal to the special problems of those facing dual diagnosis problems. And often these types of clients, those with mental and addiction issues, face extreme prejudice from med surg medical staffers – from the docs to the nurses and even on down to the techs.

What the Program Looks Like

The new center contains the Triage Program for seven clients in psychiatric emergency, the Crisis Residential Program for 12 clients needing short-term care and the new Detoxification Program for four clients with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. The three programs are closely linked and logically offered at the same location. Triage, located in the east section of the building, is designed to provide immediate evaluation for individuals in psychiatric crisis. Clients might come to the center from area emergency rooms or they might be brought in by family members or law enforcement. The individual is given an evaluation to determine the appropriate level of care, and staff members assist with that transition, which takes place within 23 hours. The area follows the “living room model” for patient comfort. Outcomes range from the client returning home with follow-up care to hospitalization.

The Crisis Residential Program

An in-between level of short-term care is offered through the Crisis Residential Program, also located at the Rosecrance Mulberry Center. The 12-bed program serves clients who don’t need hospitalization but who need ongoing monitoring and intensive services after triage. The average length of stay is 3-5 days, but clients may be in the program for up to 14 days.Four other residential beds will be used for the Detoxification Program for individuals who need that level of medical care along with monitoring for psychiatric crises. That program is new and it will open in early November.

Reclaimed Building

The Rosecrance Mulberry Center reclaimed a downtown building that had been vacant for several years. Beyond renovation of the existing structure, the project called for new construction to expand the building by about one-third. Larson & Darby Group did the architectural work, and Ringland-Johnson Construction was the contractor.

READ OUR SPECIAL FEATURE STORY… Rosecrance’s roots in the earliest times of the historic Progressive Movement

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