Oklahoma City Crisis Center Will Offer Detox and Psychiatric Care

The clinically significant detail in the Oklahoma City crisis center that broke ground on August 10 is the programs it houses rather than how many beds it holds. Plans list stabilization detoxification as a function inside the facility, alongside psychiatric crisis care.

That combination is unusual and addresses the specific failure that sends people with co-occurring disorders back and forth between facilities without either condition getting treated. Even though The Sooner State has a large selection of treatment programs, people arriving in a psychiatric crisis frequently have a substance use disorder at the same time. The new facility will stabilize both rather than route patients between separate programs.

On-Site Detox Changes the Referral Math

A psychiatric crisis unit without withdrawal management capability frequently turns away folks who arrive intoxicated or in active withdrawal. A freestanding detox unit without psychiatric coverage frequently rejects someone in acute psychiatric distress. Both refusals are clinically defensible in isolation, but can frustrate patients who need both.

When both services sit under one roof and under one clinical team, the question shifts from which facility will accept this person to what this patient needs first. For dual diagnosis care, that’s the difference between sequential and integrated treatment, and integrated treatment is what the evidence supports.

The state’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Interim Commissioner Joshua Anderson described the project’s goal to expand direct crisis care and connect more Oklahomans experiencing severe mental illness and substance use disorders to treatment and recovery.

Honoring Robert Ravitz

The center carries the name of Robert “Bob” Ravitz, the late Oklahoma County chief public defender, who held that position for more than three decades.

The naming isn’t incidental to the building’s purpose. Ravitz spent his career representing people whose underlying conditions had been handled through the criminal courts rather than through treatment.

Sue Ann Arnall, president of the Arnall Family Foundation, recalled how Ravitz believed strongly that people in mental health crises like depression or struggling with opioids needed “treatment options instead of incarceration.” The foundation contributed $2.6 million toward the project.

The Decarceration Argument

Treatment instead of incarceration has grown in Oklahoma in recent years. Crisis centers frequently accompany those facing jail time.

Diverting someone from jail requires a facility that’ll accept them at the moment police or paramedics arrive, at any hour, without screening out intoxication or psychiatric acuity. That’s precisely what a co-located detox and psychiatric stabilization model permits and what a single-purpose facility doesn’t. 

Capacity alone doesn’t accomplish diversion. Admission criteria broad enough to include the people who currently get arrested is what accomplishes it.

A Penny Tax Paid for It

Funding runs through MAPS 4, a debt-free capital program financed by a temporary one-cent sales tax that Oklahoma City voters approved in December 2019. Collection began in April 2020 and ends in 2028. The program is projected to generate roughly $1.07 billion, with more than 70% directed to neighborhood and human needs.

Mayor David Holt noted that most support for residents’ mental health needs comes from the state government. He described the 2019 MAPS 4 vote as the first tangible investment in mental health services by city government since its founding in 1889. Holt also pointed to the city’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare program as a related effort.

S.A. Studio designed the facility and L5 Construction is building it. The state agency that will operate it delivers prevention, group therapy and other recovery services across all 77 Oklahoma counties.

Dual Diagnosis and Mental Health Treatment

The city now lists a 2028 opening. When the city council approved final construction plans in June, reporting at the time put the opening in 2027.

But the one-year shift matters for families making decisions now. A facility opening in 2028 isn’t feasible for a crisis happening this month.

If you need to find treatment now, consider the following criteria.

• Ask whether a facility manages withdrawal on site or transfers patients out for it. 
• Does one clinical team handle both the psychiatric and substance use side, or whether two teams coordinate? 
• What happens if someone arrives intoxicated and psychiatrically unstable at the same time?
• Will the program accept a patient whose primary presentation shifts after admission?

Programs that answer those questions cleanly offer integrated care. Programs that describe a referral relationship offer sequential care, which may lack coordination for co-occurring conditions.

Getting started is simple. Our browsable directory lists dual diagnosis programs, behavioral health facilities, and medical detox providers throughout the country, including programs accepting Medicaid.

Our helpline provides free, confidential referrals 24 hours a day with a live expert at 800-908-4823 (Sponsored) . Anyone in immediate crisis can call or text 988.

Author

Nikki Wisher, BA

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Nikki Wisher is an Atlanta-based content writer who specializes in health and wellness. After earning her BA in English, she has been writing in the health and wellness space for over a decade, with credits ranging from addiction recovery to fitness to aesthetics and skin care. This includes her inclusive running blog forallrunners.com.

Editor

Peter Lee, PhD

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Peter W.Y. Lee is a writer and historian of American history during the Cold War. His primary focus is the relationship between youth and popular culture and its impact on U.S. society during the twentieth century. He has published widely on how the public has used popular culture as a mechanism to address political and social shifts throughout time