Castleview Hospital and the Price community celebrated Utah’s first inpatient behavioral health center in a rural community during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday attended by Gov. Spencer Cox.
Why it matters: The new Behavioral Health Unit will give patients in Carbon and Emery counties—and across rural Utah—access to needed inpatient care closer to home.
The big picture: Rural hospitals frequently care for patients experiencing mental and behavioral health crises without a nearby inpatient facility equipped to meet their needs. The Castleview unit has 14 beds, and will be a new option for patients, families and emergency departments across the region.
What they’re saying:
- Gov. Spencer Cox: “This is an unbelievable event, something I didn’t know that we could ever get to happen. And that is opening inpatient behavioral health beds in rural Utah, something that has never happened in our state’s history.”
- Castleview Hospital CEO Mark Holyoak: “This is not a high revenue generating line of business, but it is such a need. And for us to be able to provide that for our own and others in the state of Utah is just going to be a great privilege.”
- Castleview Hospital Behavioral Health Director Morgan West: “Just relief mostly, is what we’re getting from the community. Is this just sense of it’s finally happening and we’re getting help, and we’re getting what we need for the people in our community.”
- Utah Hospital Association President and CEO Francis Gibson: “I can only just express excitement for this community and for Utah. I think they’ll take patients that have not had a place to go. Our ERS are full of mentally ill patients a lot, and to be able to have a place now that we can put them is really great.”
What’s next: Castleview Hospital is finishing final construction details, completing its last hires and putting policies and procedures in place. The Behavioral Health Unit is expected to open in early November.
The bottom line: The new center represents a major step toward treating mental and behavioral health as an essential part of whole-person health—regardless of where a patient lives.