Topeka Family Service and Counseling Center is building a new Youth Crisis and Recovery Center next to its long-standing facility.
The youth center will be a 24-bed facility that will accommodate children and adolescents experiencing a mental health crisis or substance use disorder.
Pam Evans, director of marketing and development, said that before the pandemic, the facility’s leadership team saw young people regularly struggling with mental health issues even before the pandemic.
“It could be anxiety, depression, ADHD,” Evans said. “So that was an important thing that really made us look at, ‘What are the needs of the community?'”
With more beds, facilities to provide a trauma-responsive atmosphere
With crisis numbers rising before and during the pandemic, the current crisis resolution center at 800 SW Lane St. no longer fits the needs of the youth and families they serve.
The top level of the new facility will be a crisis residential program that can accommodate a two-week stay. It will allow interim youth care to be treated longer than the average 48-72 hours.
The lower tier will focus on residential substance use treatment for adolescents.
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Karen Smothers, director of clinical operations at Family Service & Guidance Center, said Johnson County Adolescent Treatment Center is the only residential adolescent substance use treatment program in Kansas.
The Johnson County Teen Center is a 10-bed facility, but its program has been operating on eight beds due to staffing shortages. Your waiting list is growing.
“Obviously the problem with that is you have a young person who needs treatment right away or is involved in high-risk substance use,” Smothers said. “Now, with fentanyl in the community, we are very concerned that we need a quicker turnaround to get kids into residential treatment.”
The new crisis center will be a 24-bed facility with the upper level providing 16 beds while the lower level serves the remaining eight.
Smothers said they see a lot of trauma victims and their behavior can get harsh. However, sending them to a hospital would be even more traumatic, especially for the youngest children.
“We want to create a better space than we have now,” he said. “That’s a more therapeutic environment for all the young people who are in crisis.”
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When will the Youth Crisis and Recovery Center open?
The Youth Crisis and Recovery Center is expected to open in the summer of 2023. Construction began on the property in early March.
A final plan for the current location of Lane Street has not yet been determined. As the center and its needs grow, it could be used in some way.
The Youth Crisis and Recovery Center will create job opportunities.
Smothers said the agency will locally recruit mental health technicians, floor staff and professionals with a Kansas license. They are currently seeking staff members for the upper level crisis program.
The lower level will not be looking for staff until their license is received.
The new facility will also provide outpatient services, which is a new program for the Center for Counseling and Family Services.
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Reach a goal of $500,000 for interiors
Family Service & Guidance Center set a goal of $500,000 to cover the cost of furniture, fixtures and equipment to complete the interior of the center. To date, the center has raised more than $793,000 in grants, bank funds, fundraisers and donations.
In late August, all proceeds from the 16th annual Work of Hearts fundraiser went to the youth crisis and recovery center.
A midnight brunch event will be September 17 at the Redbud Park pavilion at NOTO, 935 N. Kansas Ave. Fundraiser proceeds will also go toward construction.
Evans said the Youth Crisis and Recovery Center is a $7.6 million project.
Even with the goal of half a million exceeded, the fundraising will not stop. Now, the money raised will go towards all construction costs.
Donations for the Youth Crisis and Recovery Center can be made online.
“We want to see these young men bounce back and succeed,” Smothers said.
Keishera Lately is a business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. You can reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @Lately_KT.
