Emergence Health Network is rolling out plans for a new Behavioral Health East Campus in East El Paso that local officials say could change how the city handles mental health crises, especially for kids. The roughly 11-acre site is set up to serve both children and adults and is designed to include observation units, short-term crisis residential care and outpatient services. Supporters argue it could ease pressure on crowded emergency rooms and cut down on criminal-justice involvement for people whose main issue is a mental health crisis, not a crime.
According to KVIA, the East Campus blueprint calls for extended observation units, short-term crisis residential services, an adult diversion center and an outpatient clinic. KVIA reports that the campus would be the first facility in El Paso to offer children’s crisis beds, and notes that Emergence is pitching the project as a way to speed up response times while reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and incarceration.
Local services and capacity
Per Emergence Health Network, the agency already runs school-based mental health programs in the El Paso Independent School District, as well as the Fabens and Canutillo districts. On its crisis-services page, Emergence lists a 24-hour crisis hotline and an Extended Observation Unit at 1601 E. Yandell Street, Suite B, which provides short-term stabilization and is intended to divert people from hospital emergency departments. The East Campus is being framed as the next step in that approach, pulling more people into outpatient and crisis-specific care instead of relying on ERs or jails.
Why it matters for El Paso
Back in 2021, pediatric medical groups declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health and urged policymakers to expand access to care, according to the Children’s Hospital Association. Federal surveillance data showed that the proportion of emergency department visits for mental health reasons rose by about 24% among children ages 5 to 11 and 31% among adolescents 12 to 17 during March through October 2020, compared with 2019, per a CDC report. Local advocates argue that adding pediatric crisis capacity in El Paso could shorten wait times and improve follow-up for kids and teens who show up in crisis.
Rene Hurtado, Emergence’s chief of staff, told KVIA that “the mental health needs of kids are growing,” and said the new campus is intended to increase access for children and families. Hurtado cast the plan as part of a larger push to make services easier to reach for parents and schools that are already trying to manage complex student needs…