A 110,000 square foot mental health campus in north McKinney is about to become Collin County’s new front line for crisis care. LifePath Systems is shifting its crisis services to the Bloomdale Road site in late January, a move officials say will roughly double the number of crisis beds and ease the squeeze at the organization’s Heritage Drive location. The idea is simple but ambitious: give people in mental health emergencies a real alternative to arrest or a trip to the hospital.
As reported by Community Impact, LifePath plans to relocate its crisis operations to the Bloomdale Road campus at the end of January. Deputy Clinical Officer Danielle Sneed put it bluntly: “We’re doubling capacity here.” The expanded crisis center is designed to include a 16 bed extended observation unit and a 28 bed crisis respite unit, though Sneed noted the actual increase will depend on staffing levels. Clearing out crisis services from the Heritage Drive facility is expected to free that site to keep focusing on routine outpatient care and early childhood services.
What Is On The New Campus
The new campus at 2295 Bloomdale Road totals about 110,000 square feet and already hosts administration, Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority offices and some behavioral health services, according to LifePath Systems. Construction partners describe the project as an 11.5 acre campus that includes about 65,000 square feet of office space and a 45,000 square foot crisis center, with ground breaking recorded in June 2023, per Rogers-O’Brien. The layout is intentionally built to put diversion programs and clinical services side by side so people can be steered away from jails and emergency rooms and into treatment instead.
Why It Matters For Collin County
LifePath serves as Collin County’s designated local behavioral health and intellectual disabilities authority, a role highlighted by the county that explains the agency’s close coordination with county departments and law enforcement, per Collin County. The Bloomdale Road site itself was secured through a low cost land lease with the county during planning and groundbreaking, an arrangement detailed in project coverage by Community Impact. County and LifePath leaders say that public private partnership is meant to raise the profile of diversion services and give officers a nearby place to take someone in crisis when jail is not the right call…