The Lancaster County Mental Health Clinic, now in transition from county-operated to privately run, is getting a little competition.
A nonprofit group that didn’t get the contract to operate the clinic is setting up its own operation in south Lincoln, hoping to work with people who now have to wait for services.
Blue Valley Behavioral Health will begin operation Jan. 1 with a staff of six in a suite at 2935 Pine Lake Road, across from SouthPointe Pavilions. Blue Valley plans to provide many of the services available at the county mental health clinic.
The new clinic will have one full-time therapist and four full-time community support employees working with people who have severe, persistent mental illness in an effort to keep them out of the hospital and the regional center, said Blue Valley Executive Director Jon Day.
The clinic will also have a part-time advanced practice registered nurse who can prescribe and manage medication for clients.
The clinic will be able to provide many of the services for teenagers and adults that have been available at the county mental health clinic.
Blue Valley Behavioral Health is a private, nonprofit company that has been serving about 4,500 people a year in 15 rural Southeast Nebraska counties.
Traditionally, Blue Valley and Lancaster County have split the Region V behavioral health area under an unwritten agreement. Blue Valley has received funds from the 15 rural counties and Region V to operate behavioral health programs in the those areas.
But there is nothing preventing Blue Valley from offering services in Lincoln.
The new clinic is not competing with the much larger county mental health clinic, Day said. Instead, the Blue Valley clinic will be able to reduce the waiting time for Lincoln residents who need accessible and affordable service, he said.
Day doesn’t believe the Lancaster County clinic, which eventually will be operated by Lutheran Family Services, will be able to handle the need on its own.
“We are not wanting to compete with anyone. We just want to provide services and we know firsthand there is a huge need in Lincoln. We don’t want people to have to wait for services.”
C.J. Johnson, administrator of Region V Services, which contracts for behavioral health services in Southeast Nebraska using state, federal and county tax dollars, said he’d heard rumors Blue Valley was opening a Lincoln clinic.
“I haven’t had a chance to chat with them about it. But they don’t need our permission to do that,” he said.
Blue Valley was one of six companies that expressed interest in taking over county-run mental health services in Lincoln. Lutheran Family Services was awarded the contract for the mental health clinic, the largest portion of the services.
The problems Lancaster County has encountered with privatization, including licensing delays and a slow start-up for Lutheran Family Services, have benefited Blue Valley in setting up its own clinic.
Day was able to hire experienced staff who worked at the county clinic, reducing start-up time and costs. Staff will begin seeing clients by Jan. 8, he said.
Blue Valley will use its own money to open the new office in Lincoln and has asked for no help from Region V.
Blue Valley will be collecting for its services from insurance carriers and Medicaid, and will be able to take on a limited number of people without any insurance in its first year.
Day expects the program to serve about 200 people the first year, primarily adults and some youth.
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