In Sunday’s Rockford Register Star, reporter Melissa Westphal wrote about the success of the triage center at the Rosecrance Ware Center. The triage center opened in Oct. 2012 to help provide mental health services in the wake of the closing of Singer Mental Health Center:
ROCKFORD — People experiencing psychiatric crises are avoiding unnecessary hospital stays by using a triage center that opened seven months ago in Rockford, according to early data from Rosecrance Health Network.
Rosecrance officials had researched the idea of a triage center for more than 10 years, but the need for such a service increased when the state closed Singer Mental Health Center, an inpatient state hospital, in October.
So the agency renovated space at its downtown Ware Center, 526 W. State St., to house clinical recliner-style chairs, a kitchen and a waiting area where clients can be assessed, stabilized and given a referral for follow-up treatment.
The success of the center been impressive, Westphal reports:
Sixty-nine percent of those admitted were stabilized and sent home — a much higher percentage than Rosecrance officials expected.
“That’s appropriately going home with a plan — typically an appointment with a case worker or a psychiatrist,” CEO Phil Eaton said. “That’s not just being stabilized and discharged, that’s very different. What happens with that is a revolving door where you haven’t addressed the issue.”