Milwaukee County Emergency Mental Health Center to be fully staffed by Sept. 6 opening

Image: Milwaukee County Emergency Mental Health Center Administrator Kevin Kluesner gives a tour of the center in April. 

The Milwaukee County Emergency Mental Health Center, a joint venture between the county and the area’s four health systems, will be fully staffed next month, its administrator said Tuesday.

The center was originally set to open in May, but difficulties in recruiting workers pushed the date to Sept. 6.

“We’re in a really good place,” Administrator Kevin Kluesner said Tuesday. “We have the staff we need to open up.”

Kluesner said that every member of the partnership – Milwaukee County, Advocate Aurora Health, Children’s Wisconsin, Ascension Wisconsin and Froedtert Health – helped with recruitment.

He credited providers for joining the center given a “lot of unknowns.”

“There’s a level of excitement that maybe you would expect with kind of a startup venture,” he said.

The center will serve as a “center for excellence” for anyone that needs it, said Mike Lappen, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services administrator.

“It’s really a historic occasion,” he said. “For the first time, the county and the health systems are partnering to deliver something for the whole Milwaukee community.”

Meanwhile, Granite Hills Hospital in West Allis has promised the county that it’ll have 48 adult beds and 10 youth beds available by Sept. 1.

That should be enough for them to take on inpatient care provided at the Mental Health Complex, given that there were 18 patients Tuesday, Lappen said.

Services at the complex are set to close Sept. 9.

The moves come amid an expansion of community-based services. The combined efforts will allow the county to focus on “upstream and preventive services that will, we believe, lead to better outcomes for our customers,” Lappen said.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley hopes the center can serve as a model for other communities.

“This is an exciting time, a very unique partnership,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to serve the community in how we need to serve them.”

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