![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/wakebrooke_RecoveryCenter.jpg\" "\\"wakebrook_RecoveryCenter\\"")
<\/a>Photo Credit: Wake County<\/p>
WakeBrook recovery center provides substance abuse treatment. <\/p><\/div>\n
Health officials say the change will help ease the burden of patients waiting for beds. <\/p>\n
Dr. Jack Naftel of the UNC School of Psychiatry explained that with the number of available beds decreasing statewide, people in crisis are finding themselves staying in emergency departments longer than the 24-hour maximum, sometimes staying for days or weeks at a time. <\/p>\n
Space is not just a problem in Wake County, Naftel said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll across the state, people are waiting for beds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But the concern isn’t just about space or ER costs. UNC Heath Care’s Kevin Fitzgerald said most ERs are not set up with the equipment or staff necessary to handle a person in crisis. <\/p>\n
People in crisis are having difficulty coping with an extremely stressful situation. Depending on the case, this person may be a danger to themselves or others. <\/p>\n
Naftel said if more money isn’t put into treatment before patients are released, it is likely they will visit the emergency room again. <\/p>\n
Increasing the number of beds at WakeBrook won’t solve the problem, but county staff say they hope it will alleviate some of the stress on hospital emergency rooms and get patients the care they need more quickly. <\/p>\n
WakeBrook will turn 16 of its substance abuse rehab beds into inpatient psychiatric beds, which will enable hospitals to release patients directly to the center. The center will still house 16 detox beds and use the empty beds for facility-based crisis, enabling people to stay longer than 24 hours. <\/p>\n
What’s Next <\/strong> <\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" County officials are considering changing the makeup of WakeBrook Recovery Center to keep people with mental illness out of emergency rooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24029,"featured_media":8141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,15,23],"tags":[844,842,843,841],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWake County, along with Alliance \u2013 the county’s new local management entity \u2013 and UNC Health Care, still have to finalize any agreements before moving forward. The switch in bed uses also requires a change in the center’s license. <\/p>\n
\namonti@raleighpublicrecord.org <\/em><\/p>\n