The Antelope Valley Times

Your community. Your issues. Your news.

Mental health urgent care center in Lancaster on schedule

by •

The Lancaster center is being built east of the 142,000-square-foot High Desert Regional Health Center, 335 East Ave. I. [Contributed]

LANCASTER – Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County’s new $14.3 million mental health urgent care center in Lancaster is expected to be finished this fall on schedule, county officials announced Thursday.

The new center is located beside the Los Angeles County High Desert Regional Health Center in central Lancaster and will provide around-the-clock mental health services to adults, children and adolescents who are suffering a crisis and need immediate stabilization.

“The Mental Health Urgent Care Center will provide timely, comprehensive treatment from talented providers to our residents close to home,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whose district includes the Antelope Valley. “Providing mental health care remains a priority for our Antelope Valley communities, and this facility will alleviate a heavy burden on our local hospitals and provide the compassionate care patients deserve.”

Los Angeles County officials say they expect substantial completion of the 9,900-square-foot building by Sept. 15. Furnishing and final touches will take about another month, and then a few more weeks for the facility’s operator to prepare to see patients, officials said.

The urgent care center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing services for Antelope Valley patients who now must travel to the county’s Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and freeing up space in local hospital emergency rooms.

It will offer mental health services, including diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, referrals, consultation, community services, crisis intervention/stabilization, medication support and case management, county officials said.

The building is being constructed by The PENTA Building Group. The design and building contract is for $14.3 million, and the total project cost is $16.5 million.

The center will be operated under contract with the county Department of Mental Health by Star View Behavioral Health.

Star View is a subsidiary of Stars Behavioral Health Group, which was founded in 1988 and has programs in a number of California counties. Star View operates an urgent care mental health center in Long Beach for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and has a second opening this month in the City of Industry.

The Lancaster center is being built east of the 142,000-square-foot High Desert Regional Health Center, 335 East Ave. I, which was opened in 2014 by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

[Information via news release from the office of Supervisor Kathryn Barger.]

Previous related stories:

County and community leaders break ground on new High Desert Mental Health Urgent Care Center

Supervisors approve mental health services expansion at AV health center

 

25 comments for "Mental health urgent care center in Lancaster on schedule"

  1. One of the main reasons mentally ill people are wandering the streets is due to the defunding of mental institutions. There is no where for them to go for help. They can’t get decent medical care, they have no where to live, no running H2O, or electricity. What would you do and where would you live?

    • You are so right Juju. That is why I am so frustrated that our city leaders rejected the homeless facility on Ave I at the old county facility. It would have housed 700 people and helped 1400 with services. Instead Rex threw a bone to his long time buddy and built a place to house 104 for the same amount of money. The people who need help suffer while Rex and the good old boys keep raking in it. The weather must be nice in Laguna while people bake in their tents in the desert.

      • As a formerly homeless person I can honestly say your comment lacks the facts. I work with the homeless and know the facility on Ave. I was the wrong place to house and have the necessary services needed. It was too far out to be viable. The facility close within the city is much more than “housing 104.” Anyone interested in the facts can do some very simple homework and see this is a much better arrangement. I including many others that know what is going on are frustrated by the few that have their agenda, only to smear anything done by the city leaders. I am not political, I only care that those in need receive the help.

      • I can understand the city being generous enough to provide a facility with running water and basic essentials to help get freshened so people can feel motivated to get back on their feet. Dorms could also be helpful as the person is honestly trying to find a job and saving for rent while sobered up. It is very possible especially with the help of respectable roomates with goals and motivation. But where do deadbeats get off feeling entitled to free housing when there are many hard working people struggling to makes ends meet, barely making it month to month by the penny. These people deserve more of a break than a deadbeat using the mental card. Those 700 to 1400 dont need to be swarming around ave I where my friends and loved ones live. Thats why there was no housing or apartments provided around there. Why should it cost the struggling tax payer for a deadbeat to get an easy ride and not giving a darn to contribute back. I notice you are Utterly Jealous of someone living in Laguna while you are loathing in the AV. As long as you are worrying about other peoples business instead your own, being a nosey stalker wondering how much better their life is than yours, you’re never going anywhere in life other than the silly gossip crowd trying hard to seek validity rather than finding it within yourself while focusing on your goals and accomplishments. So keep kissing up to your drink buddies, buy them a couple rounds and whine about how you fall short from Laguna. They say the grass is always greener on the other side but why not focus on our own sides people, with the only one life we have. Life is what you choose to make it despite the bad times. Lancaster is my Laguna.

  2. That’s know way to talk about people that have needs . And it seems like to me that you’re talkin down on the mental health people trying to get rid of them saying what they are doing but have you done anything I provided any resources to find out what’s going on to help the situation yeah that part

    • Yes. Plenty of times and some more despite having a full time job while going to school. For some people, its rewarding as it gratifies their soul. There was a time where it helped me sleep at night and breath during the day. But after a while, when the same kinds of people that are being helped are trashing my environment to the point of creating a lice infestation and putting graffiti all over the walls and getting loaded off of god knows what kind of cheap drug all while expecting hand outs like if i owe them, then I start to reevaluate my level of generosity and grace and begin to realize that these people dont care about who is helping them because they can just wander else where, give someone else the sob story to get more handouts just to repeat the same self induced mental dysfunctions that deteriorates the city and beyond. So my question is, does that count as a mental illness that can be treated at this facility? Because I aint doing a darn thing for them other then shooing them away from around my home and family. Like I said, there are mentally ill people that deserve grace and help. They are not the ones that Im criticizing or shunning.

  3. Now my question is, is there a phone number to call the “mental police” over and pick up these “mentally needy” hobos that choose to trash my neighborhood as well as others? Can they go to that nice facility and get mentally “Adjusted” to not treat our neighborhoods and desert like a dumpster and toilet? There is plenty of mental health, or lack thereof, that needs urgent care. I understand that. But, do these dumpster diving, littering, meth inducing, miserable lost souls have a place over there? Or, is the facility meant for mental issues of more financial importance? This is Lancaster so I’m expecting a “non-satisfactory” response.

  7. This is a good thing i hope and pray people use this place and find its timing great and resourceful.

  11. I thought the AV was already one big Mental Health Urgent Care Center, let a lone the entire state of CA!

    • The sad part is that, most of you talking such foolishness are blind. They are already here. Wondering the streets and not having the help they really need. When did we as humans forget about common decency?
      We will help a stray dog before a another human being
      So sad. But one day we all will need some type of help. Just keep living and you will see. You may end up with Alzheimer’s or dementia! Now what? So be careful of what you say or do. Neighborhoods mean nothing when it comes to helping each other.