Crossroads Behavioral Health set to open May 20
With Crossroads Behavioral Health set to officially open May 20, three members of the handpicked leadership team at the new facility have ties to the former St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The partnership managing the new facility has made it their goal to contribute to the future mental health needs of the region as well as honor the history of the original hospital and its significance in Huntingburg.
Beth Mehringer, the administrator of the facility, began her career in psychiatric care at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “They had a psych unit when I was first going to college and I worked here a bit,” she said. “I really love this hospital.”
Originally from the area, Mehringer had been watching the development of the hospital since she first heard of it being purchased back in 2010. “Then in 2018, I saw that they were moving forward with the behavioral health unit, I applied for a position,” she explained.
She and the owners agreed on the importance of bringing geriatric psychiatric care to the area as well as the community focus of the new company.
“This place means a lot to a lot of people and it is important for us to give back to the community,” Mehringer said. “We are patient-centered and we are community-centered.”
Paul Tempel is in charge of maintenance of the new facility. The Huntingburg resident has been working in project management in recent years and was looking for something different when he saw the job posting for Crossroads Behavioral Health.
“I worked with the hospital in the late ’80s,” he said.
Tempel was part of a group that worked with drug and alcohol addictions when St. Joseph’s Hospital received funding from the state to help with addiction disorders. He was part of a facility that operated a 30-day addiction recovery program that was based in Birdseye.
“I’ve been working with the guts of the building,” Tempel said referring to the St. Joseph’s Hospital. “It is amazing to me that they went to the lengths they did to build the building like they did.”
Tempel said that his understanding is that the hospital structure was built in a way that as more space was needed, it could have more floors added.
Shana Weyer, Crossroads’ admissions manager, started her nursing career at St. Joseph’s in high school. “I was part of a school initiative program,” she explained.
She volunteered at the hospital as a nurses aide but was soon trained and offered a job as a nurse tech. Weyer stayed on for four years. “It was because of St. Joe that I decided to become a nurse,” Weyer explained. “I would have stayed working here if the hospital wouldn’t have shut down. I learned more from the nurses here than I ever learned in nursing school.”
Weyer was also born in the hospital. “As was 90 percent of the people I went to high school with,” the Spencer County native said.
Weyer, Tempel and Mehringer all have worked in different areas of geriatric care. The three of them are excited to see that the hospital will now serve a growing need in the region. Crossroads will provide specialized short-term, inpatient care for senior adults with conditions that include anxiety, schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, Alzheimer’s and dementia, behavioral disturbances, and other mental disorders.
According to Mehringer, mental health isn’t easy to treat nor do people like to talk about their mental health issues. In the case of geriatric mental health, many people haven’t been forthcoming with their issues and have dealt with them for most of their lives without professional help.
“The older generation was taught to suppress those issues,” Mehringer explained. “You used to just deal with things and go on but they eventually come out.”
The growing geriatric population will now have access to great mental health care in a comfortable and safe atmosphere that features semi-private rooms and updated spaces for the needed therapies to treat these mental health issues.
The Huntingburg Chamber of Commerce is hosting a ribbon-cutting this Wednesday, May 15, at 3:30 p.m. An open house featuring tours of the new facility will also be held from 3 to 7 p.m.
Crossroads Behavioral Health will officially open Monday, May 20, 2019. They have a Facebook Page and website with more information.
