In the dust of St. Luke's Behavioral Health Center's abrupt closure ripple concerns through Phoenix's mental health landscape, leaving families and former staff to grapple with a hard reality, hundreds of employees have been laid off after the center's parent company declared bankruptcy, as reported by 12news.com.
Former St. Luke's nurse Crystal Fox, dismayed by the closure, pointed out those patients often court-ordered for extended treatment found a sort of solace in St Luke's familiarity, its loss upending routines and ramping the strain on those facing severe, chronic mental illnesses, "Many of our patients that have been court ordered multiple times, high risk, very psychotic," Fox conveyed in an interview, "really struggle and have for many years, are very comfortable at St Luke's because it's a home to them." Meanwhile, the shuttering of this facility comes on the heels of revelations about health and safety violations, and the state suspending their license, as detailed by 12 News.
Further crunching the metro's mental health provision, Cronkite News illuminates that St. Luke's was a bedrock despite criticisms, with bed shortages a dire problem only exacerbated by its closure, individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) such as schizophrenia require intensive, and sometimes involuntary, treatment now have fewer local options those needing help can't afford to wait while deliberations over the facility's sale or replacement unfold, no new licenses have been issued for court-ordered mental health treatment by Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) as of yet.
