SALISBURY — Representatives from Rowan County United Way, Vaya Health, the Rowan County Health Department, Novant Health, Daymark Recovery Services and many other community organizations have spent the past few years working on bringing around-the-clock behavioral health treatment to Rowan County. On Wednesday, members of the community gathered at West End Plaza to celebrate the culmination of that work, the Rowan County Behavioral Health Urgent Care clinic.

“I have never seen the stakeholders in this come forward and say, ‘we’re going to make sure that we have better behavioral health coverages here via the BHUC.’ We were talking about all kinds of acronyms, BHUC, FBC, MCM, and you don’t have to know what all those are because these folks did all the hard work and settled on what was the right dose of care for Rowan County. Not only did they settle on it, then they funded it and I think that is incredible,” said Daymark President and CEO Billy West.

The clinic will go into Daymark’s current building on Statesville Boulevard beside the West End Plaza. West said that the clinic will help provide 24/7 care to anyone suffering from a behavioral health crisis or simply needing help outside of the normal hours, whereas before help was only available at the emergency department. Daymark currently operates five other urgent care clinics in Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Mecklenburg and Forsyth counties.

“This is going to provide an opportunity where folks don’t have to schedule their crisis. Or, maybe it’s not a crisis, it’s a working parent. I know with the one in Charlotte we had a couple of children that got assessments that I don’t know that I’d call them crises. But they were a crisis to the school system and they were crises to the parents because they had to do whatever the school system needed. They came after five because they couldn’t get off work, or they came on Saturdays,” said West.

The $3 million in funding that made the project possible came from the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, with each providing approximately half, or $1.5 million.

“Thanks to so many in this community, Rowan County is going to be so much better equipped to offer accessible, life-changing, life-saving resources to any of our neighbors in crisis. I put that emphasis on accessible because a lot of folks came up here today and talked about, I’m sure you know someone that’s had a mental health or substance use disorder or you yourself may have had one. There’s oftentimes a lot of red tape and barriers that prevent you from receiving that resource or those services that you need in that very pivotal moment, and that’s what this BHUC is about,” said Jenny Lee, executive director of United Way of Rowan County.

Commissioner Judy Klusman was on the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee that worked on the project, and she spoke on Wednesday about both her own struggles with obtaining mental health treatment and why the county government wanted to provide the funding.

“As a member of the commission, we are elected to serve the people of Rowan County. And what was happening and why we got involved was that people were dying, and they are continuing to die,” said Klusman.

She said that in 2004, 24 people died as a result of behavioral health and substance abuse issues. By 2017, the number was 72 and by 2022 that number had jumped to 107.

“It may not sound like a lot, but when you look at the ripple effect of those deaths, the destruction of families with substance abuse and undiagnosed mental health crises, you can see that it affects thousands and thousands of people in our county every year,” said Klusman.

She also shared her personal experience, saying that she had struggled with depression, anxiety and eventually bipolar disorder from the age of 12. She had multiple episodes where she was unable to get out of bed for weeks in high school. Eventually, she said that she was properly diagnosed when she moved to Rowan County in 2007 and on Wednesday she described herself as healthy in mind, body and spirit.

“What I’m here standing before you to say today is that mental illness is an illness. It is a disease, it is not who you are. You are not a drug addict, a substance abuser. You have a substance use disorder, a disease. And until we start to talk about this openly in our community, and as a retired pastor I’m going to say especially in our churches, we will not be able to make progress with this disease. I have been incredibly passionate about this from day one, understanding personally how devastating this disease is,” said Klusman.

Vaya Health Area Director and CEO Tracy Hayes provided statistics about Daymark’s services from the past fiscal year that indicated what impact the BHUC could have. Daymark provided direct interventions to over 3,000 Rowan County residents and over 1,000 people entered the current clinic and said that they were having an emergency. Of those 1,000, 290 were determined to be experiencing behavioral health emergencies requiring immediate help. Only one of those 290 was diverted to the emergency room, with the other 289 being diverted to Daymark’s urgent care clinics. The other 867 were stabilized and referred to outpatient treatment, said Hayes.

She also noted that 20 percent of those patients were indigent or had no insurance, over 50 percent had Medicaid and only one percent had private insurance.

“That tells you the need is great, but this community faced that need head-on and you worked tirelessly to make this project happen,” said Hayes.

NCDHHS Director of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Services Kelly Crosbie also made an appearance at the event, praising the partnership between Vaya, Daymark and Rowan County and also speaking about the importance of making behavioral health services more widely accepted and accessible throughout the state.

“I know that’s what you’re going to build here, a place where people feel comfortable. A place where any of you would be fine taking your mother or taking your 13-year-old child. That’s what we want to build in communities because it’s normal and it’s needed,” said Crosbie.

Along with Klusman and Lee, the members of the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee were Novant Health Rowan Medical Center’s Dr. Venkata Ravi Chivukula, United Way Board of Directors President Desiree Dunston, Rowan County Department of Social Services Director Micah Ennis from the Rowan County Department of Social Services, Rowan County Public Health Director Alyssa Harris, Vaya Health Regional Director of Community Relations Zack Shepherd and Vaya Health Director of Crisis Laurie Whitson.

The clinic is currently under construction, with United Way Philanthropy Director Audrey Eudy saying that the expected completion date was early 2025.