State Health Department finds home for Tulsa mental health services

(TULSA) - An agreement finalized Friday will make a former hospital building the home for Tulsa-area indigent mental health services. <br><br>The state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Friday, November 16th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(TULSA) - An agreement finalized Friday will make a former hospital building the home for Tulsa-area indigent mental health services.

The state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced a five-year lease agreement for the former Doctors Hospital building, where inpatient services have been provided on a temporary basis since Aug. 20.

Indigent patients in the Tulsa area had been shuffled to new health care providers after the state ended its contract with Parkside Hospital.

``We see this step as the foundation for reshaping the system of care in Tulsa to be more accessible, consumer-friendly and community-based,'' said mental health commissioner Terry Cline.

The agreement will provide for 30 inpatient beds and a 30-bed emergency care program. A mobile crisis intervention unit already uses the location as a home base.

Cline said the building will eliminate the need for patients to be transported out of their home community for services.

A combination of state employees and employees of the Grand Lake Mental Health Center will staff the site.

The lease agreement came after Brooks Harvard LLC bought the property from Hillcrest Health System.

Hillcrest had made the building available to the state under a short-term lease that was to expire Nov. 30.