Amid growing demand for mental health and substance abuse services, a new hospital is opening its doors this week in Olathe. KCUR’s Dan Margolies, reporting for Heartland Health Monitor, has more.
The 72-bed Cottonwood Springs Hospital cost more than $15 million to build and will offer inpatient and outpatient services for people with mental illness or addiction issues.
The hospital is the ninth facility built by Louisville-based Springstone Incorporated, a privately owned company backed by venture capital.
Jason Toalson, the hospital’s 39-year-old CEO, said the company chose this part of the country because it’s an underserved market.
“If you think about where all the growth has been in this area, it’s really south of 435 and there hasn’t really been any psychiatric hospitals that have grown over here," Toalson says.
Mental health advocates say too many people with serious and persistent mental illnesses are winding up in jail or in a state hospital because they have nowhere else to go. They say the new hospital will help relieve some of the strain on the mental health system.
