Hennepin County has accepted a $5 million state grant to reconstruct the first floor of the 1800 Chicago building into a behavioral health and wellness clinic. The clinic, now in its pilot phase, provides people experiencing mental health/addiction crises with immediate health care, behavioral health triage and connections to ongoing services in the community. The goal is to provide a community-based option for people who might otherwise end up in jail or the hospital.

The new space will include medical treatment rooms, a behavioral health assessment and observation room, and a single point of entry for emergency responders.

This is part of a larger project to transform 1800 Chicago Ave. into a behavioral health center. The building now houses a crisis stabilization program that provides short-term residential care for people who do not require intensive inpatient psychiatric care. The withdrawal management program (detox) has also expanded from 50 to 65 beds.

The Chicago Triage Project has been in the works for some time. The latest actions won Hennepin County Board approval in November. The funding is from a larger $28.1 million state capital grants program for behavioral health programs delivering mental health and/or substance abuse disorder services. The grant Hennepin County received is the largest the program can allocate to one entity. The grant program won legislative approval in 2018.

(Source: Hennepin County)