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The new facilities are expected to open in the summer of 2011 to serve people with mental health and substance use crises.

By University Communications
October 27, 2009

A groundbreaking ceremony on Monday officially kicked off construction of Pima County's newest behavioral health care centers.

The two new facilities on the UPH Hospital campus are being built through a partnership of Pima County, University Physicians Healthcare, Community Partnership of Southern Arizona and the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

The new facilities are expected to be completed and open in the summer of 2011 to serve people with mental health and substance use crises.

The project consists of two new buildings. The Behavioral Health Pavilion and the Crisis Response Center are being built immediately adjacent to UPH Hospital. Together, the facilities will provide coordinated treatment of patients with behavioral health problems.

The new facilities are expected to ease the demand on hospital emergency departments, decrease the number of mentally ill patients in correctional facilities as well as reduce the number of and lengths of stay of psychiatric hospitalizations. It also will provide a training ground to educate new physicians in a setting that embraces integrated behavioral health care.

"This is an exciting and crucial project for our community," said Larry Aldrich, president and CEO of University Physicians Healthcare. "This public and private partnership to bring an integrated style of treatment is among the first of its kind in the country. This is an innovative model of behavioral health care that we believe will set the standard for the future."

The Behavioral Health Pavilion will provide inpatient and outpatient services as well as emergency medical and behavioral health services. The three-level building will house an emergency department, 96 private inpatient rooms, outpatient services, classroom and teaching facilities and a courtroom for patients admitted through the legal system.

The Crisis Response Center will provide triage for people in behavioral health crisis and direct patients to the most appropriate resources in the community. It is designed for those not requiring emergency or acute psychiatric care who otherwise might unnecessarily go to hospital emergency departments or be taken to detention centers.

The two-story structure will include a 15-bed sub-acute inpatient unit and separate areas for youth and adult crisis services.

These new facilities were made possible through funding approved by the voters of Pima County. In 2006 two bond packages were approved totaling $54 million to build these two facilities, and a 2004 bond package allocated $12 million for expansion of psychiatric facilities at UPH Hospital.  

UPH is a nonprofit corporation created in 1985 as the medical practice of the physicians of the UA College of Medicine. Together, UPH, the University, UPH Hospital and University Medical Center combine to care for patients, educate medical students, train young physicians and conduct clinical research. With more than 350 physicians and 1500 staff, UPH is Arizona's largest physicians group.