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Lasting Hope Recovery Center Opens in Midtown, Helping Meet Critical Need
It stands as a symbol of the community's compassion and generosity, located, appropriately enough, right in the heart of Midtown Omaha. The Lasting Hope Recovery Center is the result of a unique public-private partnership: an outstretched hand offering help to those struggling with mental illness.
"We have been significantly short of beds for adults needing psychiatric care in our community for the last several years. That's been a major need we're intending to fill here," said Thomas Hickey, Psy. D. and executive director of Lasting Hope Recovery Center.
The inpatient facility opened April 8 at 25th and Harney streets in the former Richard Young 415 building. The community lost 96 adult psychiatric beds when Richard Young closed four years ago. Lasting Hope restored 64 of those beds, bringing the total number of beds currently available in the Omaha metro to 149.
"Our mission is to promote healing relationships, empower growth and recovery through innovative treatments and establish lasting hope," said Hickey. "We consider every encounter a healing opportunity. That's our true calling and focus. We are striving to be a place where people can come with all kinds of different issues and be accepted for who they are and where they are in their walk."
The Nebraska Behavioral Services Act provided the spark from which Lasting Hope sprang. The law, enacted in 2004, promotes the development and expansion of community-based mental health services and the ultimate phasing out of state-run institutions. With this legislation as the catalyst, a coalition of community-based providers, hospitals, state personnel, elected officials, educators and community leaders started developing a plan to investigate, enhance and expand community-based care and treatment options.
Three of those community leaders were Ken Stinson and Howard and Rhonda Hawks, three people whose passion for the cause is very personal. Rhonda's father lived with mental illness. Stinson, too, knows the deep impact mental illness can have on a family. Together, they proved instrumental in the creation of Lasting Hope.
"When we came to the conclusion we needed a recovery center, we knew the Richard Young building was available. So, together with the Stinsons, we formed a new not-for-profit entity called the Behavioral Health Support Foundation," said Rhonda Hawks
The foundation committed to raise an astounding $21.5 million dollars to purchase the building, fund a massive renovation and pay start-up costs. It pledged an additional $4 million to support community-based agencies like Catholic Charities and Community Alliance, whose main office is also located in Midtown. These two organizations help patients transition from a hospital setting to independent living.
The community came through in a big way. According to Hawks, the foundation is now just $900,000 shy of its goal.
"We went out and talked to a lot of people in the community who we thought would be interested in behavioral health, and the response was outstanding. People were so generous," said Hawks.
Hickey said he has worked all over the country and has never witnessed such an outpouring of support for mental health services.
"It's just not done anywhere. For Omaha to be able to count that as part of its legacy is just fantastic," he commented. "We're very blessed to have some very generous folks with a heart for this vulnerable, behavioral health population."
Lasting Hope is licensed and managed by Alegent Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center. Annual operating costs are estimated at approximately $15 million. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance is expected to generate $10 million. The state has agreed to provide an additional $5 million per year in supplemental support. If necessary, Alegent Health and The Nebraska Medical Center are prepared to help cover additional, unexpected operating expenses.
"Both institutions have very generously agreed to backstop this program over the next 10 years, which truly gives us some of the financially sound footing we need to get established and develop the kind of program and service delivery system we really need here," noted Hickey.
The facility is expected to hit full capacity in June. Hickey said the plan all along was to ramp up gradually to ensure the best patient service possible.
"We want to make sure all of the systems work well, that the processes are in place and functioning well," he continued. "As we identify opportunities for improvement, we're incorporating those on a daily basis to make things run more smoothly."
So far, feedback from the patients who have already come and gone has been very positive.
"It's been quite gratifying," said Hickey.
"It has all come together so nicely," remarked Hawks. "We have an outstanding team down there. I'm so impressed with the staff that Hickey and Medical Director Roger Pentzien, M.D., have put together. They're very caring people who are very much committed to the facility."
Included among the staff is a group of certified peer specialists, people who have demonstrated success in managing their own mental illness.
"We've hired them to provide direct modeling for our patients, to help them see that they too can overcome and succeed and recover. It's not just a concept or a fantasy; it's a reality. By telling their story, they really do provide a tremendous beacon of hope for the folks we serve here," said Hickey.
To further help patients achieve lasting wellness -- beyond the walls of Lasting Hope -- several community organizations, including National Alliance on Mental Illness-Nebraska, The Salvation Army and Lutheran Family Services, are co-located in the facility. The goal is to provide a more seamless transition into an outpatient setting.
"It's all about helping people," said Hawks. "We get a lot of phone calls and e-mails from people who are desperately seeking help and don't know what to do. Your heart really goes out to them. It's great to be able to help others."