Sun Behavioral opened a center for substance abuse and mental health treatment in Sussex County this week.
The Jersey-based company now has a 93,000 square foot facility in Georgetown with 90 inpatient beds.
It’s Sun Behavioral’s fourth location and first in Delaware. In addition to inpatient treatment, it will be offering intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization for mental illness and substance abuse disorders with 24-hour a day availability for patient intake.
CEO Amy Wood says Sun Behavioral was approached by CEOs from Bayhealth, Beebe and Nanticoke about opening a Sussex County location.
“Sussex County is vastly underserved for mental health services,” said Wood. “So, we began discussions with them in terms of needs and really talking to the community and the populations, and made a determination we felt like in fact we could come in and work with the community and make a solid impact.”
Wood says Sun stands for “serving unmet need,” which is why the company chose the location in southern Delaware as its first in the state.
Sun is currently serving adolescent, adult and geriatric patients and will soon expand to treat children.
It does not offer medication-assisted treatment for patients with substance abuse disorder, but Wood says that is being considered as a future option. She adds a full psychiatric staff is providing a litany of mental health services.
“So everything from depression, to anxiety, to mood disorder, to opiates and other substance use, to geriatric needs and trends, to the severe thought disorder patients, those are all of the patient populations that we treat,” said Wood.
Wood says Sun is already a part of Delaware’s new online referral network and can accept overdose patients from anywhere in the state.