The Bridge Center for Hope is a community asset providing essential mental health and substance use crisis stabilization services for East Baton Rouge Parish residents. In response to an increase in people suffering from mental illness, substance use challenges or both, parish residents in 2018 overwhelmingly passed a property tax to fund the first crisis stabilization center in Louisiana.
The Bridge Center opened its 26,000-square-foot facility in February 2021, providing an alternative to the parish prison or local emergency rooms for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Bridge Center has a “no wrong door policy,” adopted by RI International, the facility’s service provider, that allows people to access the facility no matter what they are going through or what time of day it is.
AT A GLANCE
Top executive: Charlotte Claiborne, Executive Director
Phone: [225] 308-1032
Website: brbridge.org
From February to December 2021, the center treated 2,286 individuals; 1,253 came to the center on their own, while first responders escorted 888 individuals. Average length of time per first-responder dropoff is 3.74 minutes, a dramatic difference from the time to admit someone to an emergency room or the parish prison, which is not adequately equipped to treat people with mental health issues.
“The center’s immediate goal is to mitigate the crisis,” says Executive Director Charlotte Claiborne. “We engage that person to de-escalate the crisis, then we figure out what’s going on because every stage of a crisis is different.”
Everyone is assessed in the center’s 23-hour observation unit, where they are monitored. Those who are not stabilized and discharged are transferred to either the short-term psychiatric unit or the medical detoxification unit, each of which has 16 beds and specialist staff, such as a psychiatrist, addictionologist, nurse practitioners and peer support specialists. Average length of stay is 3 to 5 days.
The center’s mission to be a continuum of care then refers discharged individuals to other providers in the community as needed. Everyone leaves with two scheduled appointments—one for behavioral health and one for physical health.
The Bridge Center accepts all forms of insurance, but also covers treatment costs for East Baton Rouge Parish residents who are uninsured or underinsured and 18 years or older. Because the center does not turn anyone away, out-of-parish resident costs are covered by RI International.
“Mental health crises can happen to anybody, which is why there are no barriers to accessing services at the Bridge Center,” Claiborne says. “Our goal is to provide much-needed services that had become non-existent within our community.”
