At Integral Care’s new Youth Crisis Respite Center, a stripe of rainbow paint lines the walls between brightly colored dorm rooms. A small closet brims with fantasy novels. In a breezy multipurpose room, a mural featuring cacti, honeybees and flowers surrounds the phrase, “Grow through what you go through.”
Designed by respite staff member Taylor Morgan, the mural is there to set the tone for kids navigating times of crisis. The respite center will begin serving children between the ages of 13 and 17 in September.
Morgan, a mental health provider for the new respite center, said teens who are referred there might be engaging in self harm or experiencing suicidal ideation, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports has become more common in youth over the past decade. Others might be experiencing heavy conflict at home with parents or family members and may benefit from spending time in a neutral space for a few days to prevent a crisis from escalating.
“We can notice warning signs and say, ‘I think we should intervene now,’ instead of waiting until something bad happens,” Morgan said at a ribbon-cutting for the center on Friday.
In past experiences working with kids in crisis, Morgan said inpatient hospitals were often full, forcing their clients to endure stressful waits in emergency rooms.
“I've seen a lot of children who go to inpatient hospitals when a lower level service like this really could have met those needs,” Morgan said. “This kind of interim option can be a good way to offset that burden, and just provide better care for families and children.”
Liz Pearson, the director of children’s health at the Texas Health & Human Services Commission, said respite programs in Texas have served 64 children in crisis over the past quarter. 83% of those kids were ultimately able to stabilize and remain in their community rather than be hospitalized, Pearson said.
Most kids are expected to stay at the respite center for an average of five days. During that time, they will have access to a variety of health services and resources, depending on their needs. Staff members like Morgan will offer individual, group and family therapy sessions.
The center is located near Mueller on the campus of the headquarters for the SAFE Alliance, an organization that provides shelter and services for victims of abuse and sexual assault and sex trafficking.
SAFE Alliance CEO Julia Spann said the space used to be an emergency shelter for kids tied up in the child welfare system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer kids were coming in while the cost of service was going up, so the program was shut down in what Spann called a “horrible, heart-wrenching decision for the agency.”
When the opportunity came to partner with Integral Care to create the youth respite center, Spann says SAFE was excited to use the space to support kids in crisis again.
“This just made sense,” Spann said. “It absolutely made sense.”
