WakeMed Health and Hospitals will provide hospital-level mental health and substance use disorder treatments at WakeBrook, the mental health hospital in Raleigh.
Mental health advocates in Wake County cheered the announcement, saying it goes a long way to restoring services at the hospital that were lost earlier this year.
"WakeMed's historical commitment to supporting some of our most vulnerable community members, engagement of community providers to support post-crisis needs and service expansion to include a new behavioral health hospital make them a unique partner for this important service," said Wake County Commissioner Cheryl Stallings.
When fully operational next year, WakeMed will provide inpatient care while RI will provide the following services at WakeBrook:
- Crisis and assessment services
- Alcohol and drug detoxification unit
- Facility-based crisis services
UNC Health Care had provided care at WakeBrook for about a decade, but decided to transition away from WakeBrook, in part to operate a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents in Butner. Wake County owns the WakeBrook hospital and sought to keep UNC as the provider, but negotiations soured as sides could not reach an agreement and accused each other of not negotiating in good faith.
Wake County reached a new deal with RI International to take over operations of WakeBrook. But that group does not offer the same kind of hospital-level care that UNC Health provided. This led advocates in the area to worry that care especially for the most acute cases would suffer. Many of those concerns were allayed with the announcement on Tuesday.
"WakeMed has the ability to provide higher levels of medical care at WakeBrook as a clinically appropriate alternative to local emergency departments," said Alliance Health CEO Rob Robinson. Alliance Health is the managed care organization for publicly funded behavioral health care services in a six-county service area, including Wake. "They will be able to leverage their medical staff to support patient care on the inpatient unit and call upon their partnership with a network of behavioral health providers to provide important post-acute community-based behavioral health and substance use disorders services and social care supports."
Separately, WakeMed is planning a 150-bed behavioral health hospital in Garner, with a planned opening in 2026.
Services at WakeBrook are currently paused as RI International transitions into the facility at 111 Sunnybrook Road. The county hopes to resume most operations by early next year. There is no timeline for opening the inpatient unit of WakeBrook, which is a unit that WakeMed will operate.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the services WakeMed and RI will provide at WakeBrook.
