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A GROWING DEMAND FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE REAL ESTATE OPTIONS

Written by Posted On Friday, 07 June 2019 09:32

It’s no secret that there’s is a behavioral health crisis gripping the nation. Behavioral health disorders, which entail mental health and substance use disorders, have reached epidemic levels and according to a recent study, the main driver of this crisis is the lack of access to treatment. In October of 2018, the Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) and National Council for Behavioral Health issued a joint study labeled America’s Mental Health 2018 , a comprehensive study of access to mental health care in the United States. The study concluded American mental health services are insufficient, and despite high demand, the root of the problem is lack of access – or the ability to find care.

The numbers are staggering. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (46.6 million) experiences mental illness in a given year. 20.2 million more struggle with substance abuse. Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, it is reported that in 2016 less than half (43.1 percent) of those suffering received mental health treatment and nearly 45,000 lost their lives to suicide - far more than the 19,362 who were victims of homicide in this country.

It is clear that the necessary facilities and staff required to meet the country’s growing behavioral health crisis is wholly inadequate and in very few states is this crisis more acute than in the state of Washington. According to a 2018 study by Mental Health America that compared the adequacy of mental health care among the states, Washington State ranked near the bottom for adults at 38th. It didn’t fare much better for youth where it ranked 35th. States with high rankings have lower prevalence of mental illness and higher rates of access to care. Lower rankings indicate that residents have higher prevalence of mental illness with lower rates of access to care. Washington state’s ranking indicates it has a relatively higher prevalence of mental illness compared with other states along with relatively inadequate access.

The need for more access and facilities in Washington state is clear and within the state of Washington, Eastern Washington and particularly the Spokane area are in dire need of facilities. Spokane, WA is one of the few areas that has been targeted by the state to provide these services. Eastern Washington is one of the hardest places in the U.S. to find a bed for mental health care. The number of people requiring mental health care has jumped in the past five years in the Spokane area, with providers noting a variety of factors driving that increase, including better awareness of mental illness that has made people more likely to seek care. In addition, the Affordable Care Act gave many undiagnosed people health insurance for the first time. Alexander, Rachel (Jan. 3, 2017) "Spokane’s New Psychiatric Hospital will help Meet soaring Demand for Care." http://www.spokesman.com .

For no other segment is the need for mental health facilities more pressing than for children, especially in the Spokane and Eastern Washington area. In this region, the emergency room is the de facto treatment center for many kids, from children to teens, needing urgent mental health care. Phaneuf, Taryn (June 06, 2016) "Overwhelming Need," https://www.inlander.com . According to Phaneuf's article, when faced with a crisis situation, school officials, police, parents and primary care doctors send kids to the ER, where they’re evaluated by a variety of mental health care professionals and then referred to inpatient or outpatient care.

The Spokane Regional Health District's 2008 Healthy Youth Report (the most recent research available) found one in four local youth reported being depressed for two weeks or more in the previous year, and 15 percent seriously considered attempting suicide. According to Mental Health America's 2016 report, more than half of Washington youth experiencing a major depressive episode did not receive any mental health services.

With more than a quarter of teens in Spokane County experiencing depression, and many other mental health and behavioral issues not even tallied, the system is frighteningly overburdened, parents and doctors say. The consequences are both immediate and far-reaching.

Kids in crisis can spend days - sometimes weeks - in the emergency room, waiting for an open inpatient bed. Parents fight waiting lists and limited programs for ongoing care that suits their children's needs. For some kids who move past the crisis stage but requiring continuing round-the-clock residential care, they often fall through the cracks because of lack of access and facilities.

The shortage of proper mental health facilities available to children reached crisis levels in 2016 spurring calls for increased state participation and funding. During the state legislature's shortened session that ended in March, 2016, physicians with the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics converged on Olympia to present statistics and request funding for improving mental health care for kids.

To meet the growing need for behavioral healthcare facilities for youth and children in the Spokane area and in the state of Washington as a whole will require a concerted effort from both the public and private sectors. The state has made strides lately to address the mental health crisis in Washington state with the state senate recently giving unanimous approval for a new mental health care hospital at the University of Washington. Groundbreaking of the proposed hospital still faces obstacles and is still far off but it’s a step in the right direction.

Without the binds of government red tape, the private sector is better positioned to make an immediate impact and immediately address the behavioral health facilities shortage for children than the public sector. At the forefront of this push, I recently came across Spokane local Randy Hubbs of Global Summit Management, LLC , https://globalsummitmanagement.com , a private real estate investment company that embraces social impact investing as one of its core values. Randy recently expressed to me how the need to address the mental health care crisis facing children has taken on a personal nature for him with urgency driving him to do all he can to launch residential care facilities for children.

“Our mission is to assist families struggling with varying levels of child behavioral and social challenges that make normal living arrangements untenable. By removing children from the cold and clinical settings of typical health care facilities and providing a comfortable, homelike setting that is conducive to therapeutic intervention, these families and their children are given the best opportunity to return to normalcy within the community setting. Funding for these homelike facilities will come from an investor pool with like-minded goals structured as a private investment vehicle to give us the quickest route to acquire, develop and launch our first facility and immediately address the shortage. And we won’t be alone in this endeavor. We will be teaming with Apple Brooke LLC, a premier provider of child behavioral healthcare services with a sterling reputation in the state of Washington.”

Satisfying the current growing need for behavioral health care services, especially for children, will require monumental efforts from both the public and private sectors. But with champions of this cause like Randy Hubbs, perhaps the road to adequate care can be shortened where all children in need of care will have unimpeded access.

 
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James Stevenson

Hi, My name is James and I've been involved in the property and real estate industry for 10 years now. I hope people will like to read about my thoughts and experiences in the industry and please contact me if you want to discuss my articles further!

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