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Offering those in crisis a brighter path forward

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Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo didn’t mince words Tuesday morning, as health care providers and state and local officials broke ground for Bright Path Center in Doylestown Township.

“This will save lives. I know it will,” DiGirolamo said of the unique initiative. “I hope and pray other counties will follow.”

The first-of-its-kind facility in Pennsylvania, Bright Path Center will offer a broad range of behavioral health crisis services including “acute, trauma-informed, person-centered” care under one roof, said Sharon Curran, Lenape Valley Foundation CEO.

Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia too called attention to the profound impact mental health care and substance abuse recovery programs can bring.

Noting that Sunday is Mother’s Day, she said, “I’m putting a shovel in the ground for all mothers who can come (to the center) with their child, young or old, for help, and for those who didn’t have this.”

Located adjacent to Lenape Valley Foundation on the grounds of Doylestown Health, the 22,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed late next year.

“This is dedication, a belief that can light the way for behavioral health and substance abuse recovery,” Curran said. “It’s the first such center designed specifically for this purpose.”

When people can “recover more quickly and decrease their trauma,” said Curran, “they have less need of returning.”

Among the center’s innovative programs are on-site, behavioral health professionals to welcome, assess and stabilize people experiencing urgent mental health challenges, drug and alcohol abuse and/or intellectual disabilities.

Bright Path will provide short-term residential treatment facilities, withdrawal management as well as mobile crisis services and 24/7 telephone interventions.

The ambitious project is estimated to cost between $12 million and $13 million for construction, according to officials. It’s being funded through a variety of sources, including opioid settlement and pandemic monies and the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Many agencies and healthcare professionals collaborated in a rare partnership to create Bight Path. Lenape Valley Foundation joined Doylestown Health, Bucks County Department of Behavioral Health/Developmental Programs, Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission and Magellan Behavioral Health to develop the specialized center.


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