ADAMH closing in on $50-million goal to build mental health center
A total of $44.5 million has been raised toward a $50-million goal to build the planned Franklin County Mental Health and Addiction Crisis Center in south Franklinton, which is scheduled to open in 2024.
The center is an initiative of Franklin County, the ADAMH Board and the Central Ohio Hospital Council. The planned new facility will have an observation unit, a short-term inpatient unit, and a walk-in clinic. There also will be an on-site pharmacy.
The center will be built on a three-acre site that ADAMH owns on Harmon Avenue east of South Souder Avenue, across from the Franklin County Children’s Services building south of Interstate 70 near Franklinton.
That’s close to the county’s new $360 million jail, being built on Fisher Road west of Downtown. In October, Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce said people who end up in jail are often in crisis themselves, and a mental health facility nearby will help.
The planned facility has received $4 million in recent donations, including:
• $2.5 million from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations.
• $1 million from the Robert F. Wolfe and Edgar T. Wolfe Foundation.
• $500,000 from the Columbus Foundation.
A summer groundbreaking is planned for the project, being led by the Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH).
Erika Clark Jones, ADAMH chief executive, told The Dispatch she is optimistic that $50-million goal will be met.
“We’re mainly targeting corporate foundations,” she said.
ADAMH is contributing $8 million, and officials have asked for $500,000 from the federal government, she said.
Earlier funders include the state of Ohio, Franklin County, the city of Columbus, and the adult hospital systems in Franklin County: Mount Carmel, OhioHealth and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Doug Kridler, the president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation, said discussions began a decade ago about the need for such a center. He said hospitals better serve the population when they can direct patients in crisis to a facility with expertise in behavioral health and addiction.
“Patients get better and more focused care,” Kridler said.
“In some ways, this is a tremendous result of a tremendous collaboration among many parties and organizations in the community,” he said.
“It vividly displays and shows what the community can do.”
Terri Donlin Huesman, president and CEO of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations, said her board approved the contribution in December.
“Behavioral helath is a priority,” she said. We realized the potential this had.”
“We’re encouraged by the authentic community collaborative to address this need,” she said.
@MarkFerenchik
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