Crossroads Behavioral Health to open at St. Joseph’s Hospital property
Work is set to begin on a $10 million behavioral health facility that will be located in the remaining empty portion of the former-St. Joseph’s Hospital building in Huntingburg.
The property’s owner, hematologist and oncologist Dr. Ijaz Mahmood, plans on hosting a groundbreaking ceremony the second week of May for the facility, Crossroads Behavioral Health. He expects the new practice to open before the end of the year.
Dr. Mahmood was part of a partnership that purchased the hospital in 2010, three years after St. Joseph’s closed. He and his partners announced a similar facility to the common council at the time but those plans did not come to fruition. The group had explored the idea as a 50-bed mental health treatment facility with an acute care center next door, but with the services offered by Memorial Hospital, it wasn’t economically feasible to have two such facilities so close to each other.
In 2014, Miller-Valentine Group purchased about 30,000 square feet on the north side of the property and created 45 senior living apartments. Those opened in 2017.
The southern portion of the hospital building and detached professional services building have remained vacant except for when the Huntingburg Police Department moved into the professional services building while the department was being renovated.
According to Dr. Mahmood, the services Crossroads Behavioral Health will offer are greatly needed in the region. “The most needed in the area is the care of the elderly,” he explained. “So we decided we are going to primarily provide geriatric behavioral health. Patients with dementia. Patients with depression. Elderly people with all sorts of problems.”
The second floor of the hospital will provide complete geriatric psychiatry care and have 16 beds available.
The main floor of the hospital will provide behavioral health for the general population. Practitioners will provide treatment options for people with substance abuse and addiction issues and depression as well as services for veterans dealing with PTSD and other issues. Dr. Mahmood said these are mental health issues plaguing every community. “These issues break down the community and ruin families,” he explained.
This area will have 24 beds for patients.
In the future, the professional services building will house more outpatient psychiatric treatment options including help for teenagers and children. Dr. Mahmood said the lack of options for local families to find this type of care can lead to financial hardships as they travel to facilities outside the area for care.
Dr. Mahmood expects this will also lead to the patients coming to Huntingburg for treatment from outside the county.
“Many families are suffering from these types of issues,” Dr. Mahmood said.
Danville-based Edwards-Rigdon is preparing to begin work on the interior of the building. Dr. Mahmood said the group plans on applying for tax abatement with the city after the architect Jack Hollingsworth of ARRAY architecture + interiors has completed the plans for the facility.
Dr. Mahmood expects to have at least four doctors on staff in addition to the supporting personnel at the facility.
He explained that providing the geriatric mental health care is important for him since he has had family members and even colleagues affected by these degenerative mental health issues as they have aged.
“These patients need to be diagnosed and helped earlier on,” Dr. Mahmood said.
Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner sees the facility as a welcome addition to the community as well as the region.
“It’s going to bring a level of healthcare that is obviously needed in southwestern Indiana,” he said. “It is also going to help us achieve the long-term goal of full utilization of the hospital property.”
The city and Dr. Mahmood’s group are in talks to utilize the third building on the grounds as the location for the senior activities center. Spinner explained that this development is being explored as part of the Stellar Community program, but Market Street Park has to be completed before they can look at funding options for the renovation of the building. “This is a location that has been considered since the beginning of our (Stellar) planning,” he said. “It just hinged on how Dr. Mahmood was going to develop the rest of the property.”
He explained that Dr. Mahmood has been working on plans for this type of facility for the past couple years and added that it was a good addition to the continued development of that area of town.
“It is just a great shot in the arm for our economy,” Spinner said. “It is also evidence we are a growing community, and there is a lot of interest and investment going on in Huntingburg.”
Wow, this seems to have popped up again all of the of sudden. I don’t recall all the hearings, discussion and approval process for this specific development, other than that for a prison-type or psychiatric treatment facility referred to, which was opposed, rejected, etc. I do recall discussion about some geriatric and/or similar re-hab, etc…but again not the final or specific approval for this. Maybe you can re-visit (re-post) the story on that meeting process and the approval, etc, for this development.
There have been no discussions in public meetings regarding the development as there has been no need for an approval of anything, yet. Building permits are not discussed in public meetings unless they require some type of variance. Likely this will come before the common council and redevelopment commission as it proceeds and the group requests a tax abatement.
It is interesting just how many different possibilities the Stellar grant can fund. Meanwhile, the merchants on 4th Street must wait due to lack of funding. Also, the community was up in arms over the doctor’s last attempt to put a psychiatric hospital in the St. Joe’s building. What a difference a few years make.
Stellar funding is not being used for this private project however a senior center was included in the list of Stellar Projects.
Also, the Stellar funds for Fourth Street mainly come from the Indiana Department of Transportation while the Market Street Project receives funds from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The senior center will receive funding from Office of Community and Rural Affairs but that money won’t be made available until Market Street Park is completed.
I work in the behavioral health field. This is much needed in our area and all areas across this country. People are so quick to judge this field of work, but I would venture to say that almost everyone reading this knows of someone that has been affected by depression, suicidal ideations, anxiety, alcohol and drug addicion or any other behavioral health issue. We not only need these sevices, we need classes in schools to teach about this growing problem. I applaud this decision and would live to join this group!