Mental health problems affect a large portion of the population. Nearly 19% of adults suffer from mental illness at some time during a year and 4% suffer serious mental illness. Addiction treatment costs nationwide have been increasing 5% annually.
In 2016, SUN (Solving Unmet Needs) was awarded a Certificate of Need by Delaware’s Health Resource Management Board to open a psychiatric hospital in Sussex County, DE, to address the complete lack of short-term acute psychiatric beds and the crisis in behavioral health services in the county.
Delaware estimates that in 2014 there were 7,140 adults in Sussex County who had a serious mental illness and another 32,200 were diagnosed with a depression disorder that year. In Georgetown, SUN DE is centrally located to Sussex County’s population of 197,000 to meet their behavioral health needs.
“This will be a hospital that really is part of a community-wide solution. We are just a piece in the pattern. This will be part of a community effort to solve mental illness and addiction disorders for those suffering in Sussex County. This hopefully will be an important missing piece.”
— STEVE PAGE, SUN BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CEO | SUSSEX COUNTY POST, NOVEMBER, 2016
This 93,170 square foot facility will make behavioral health care accessible and will alleviate stresses on local emergency rooms. Services will be available to Medicaid and uninsured patients. Dedicated treatment units and programs will address the special needs of children, seniors, women, veterans and people with addiction. At full capacity, the hospital will have 188 full-time employees.Reinvestment Fund’s financing includes participations from peer CDFIs Boston Community Capital, LISC and Opportunity Finance Network.
SUN Behavioral Health operates or is opening several other hospitals across the country, in Columbus, OH, Houston, TX, and Edgewood, KY.