Behavioral Health News & Events
Volume 2, Issue 1 | January 2014
for the mission of the Sexual Assault Center of East Tennessee,
consolidate costs for the community, and will help streamline services
and partnerships in East Tennessee."
The Helen Ross McNabb Center provides crisis services for individuals
experiencing domestic violence, substance abuse and/or psychiatric
crises, and also provides emergency shelter for individuals in crisis
situations. “Sexual Assault Center of East Tennessee’s services
align well with the Helen Ross McNabb Center’s current crisis
continuum of care,” says Leann Human-Hilliard, HRMC Vice
President of Clinical Services. “Merging operations will enhance
crisis services in our community and strengthen our response to
individuals who have been sexually assaulted and affected by
trauma.”
SACET will be recognized as a service of the Helen Ross McNabb
Center. The ultimate goal of the merger is to increase and
strengthen services for individuals and families during crisis
situations and to seamlessly connect those individuals to quality
support and after care services.
The Helen Ross McNabb Center is a premier not‐for‐profit provider
of behavioral health services in East Tennessee. Since 1948, the
Center has provided quality and compassionate care to children,
adults and families experiencing mental illness, addiction and social
challenges. As the Center begins its 65th year of providing services
to communities in East Tennessee, its mission remains clear and
simple; “Improving the lives of the people we serve.” For more
information, visit www.mcnabbcenter.org or call 865‐637‐9711.
Centerstone Looks to Heal Body and Mind with new
Nashville Facility
Nonprofit mental health provider hopes to set standard in care
Centerstone is opening a behavioral health campus in Berry Hill. CEO Bob Vero stands
on the outline of the old Home for Crippled Children, which was built by the women
of Nashville's Junior League in 1923. / John Partipilo / The Tennessean
“Individuals with serious and persistent mental illnesses are more
likely to be seen by specialty mental health providers, but they
have limited access to effective medical care and high mortality
rates, underscoring the need for better connections across
primary care and mental health,” the report says.
The building
Centerstone’s new building is physically designed to enable that
kind of connection. Patients can literally walk down the hall from a
therapy room, for example, to its primary care treatment area. In
2013, Centerstone formed a joint venture with Unity Physician
Partners to offer primary care in its behavioral health facilities
across the country.
A nod to the past
WRITTEN BY SHELLEY DUBOIS THE TENNESSEAN, EDITED
Centerstone, the nation’s largest nonprofit mental health provider,
will open a new state-of-the-art behavioral health facility in
Nashville next month. But it’s more than just a new building:
Centerstone hopes to use it to break new ground in mental health
research, finding novel ways to treat both physical and mental
health that can be duplicated in centers around the country.
The space also is a tribute, of sorts, to a piece of Nashville’s health
history. In the yard behind the building — located between
homes, businesses and Highway 65 — is the outline for the old
Home for Crippled Children, which was built by the women of
Nashville’s Junior League in 1923, only one year after the Nashville
group was created.
The new building is on a plot of land previously owned by the
Junior League, off White Avenue in Berry Hill. Centerstone is calling
the building and surrounding area the Dede Wallace Campus, after
a prominent Nashville Junior League member.
At the time, “it wasn’t common for women to lead companies and
hold offices — we had just been given the right to vote,” said
Catherine Beemer, the president of Nashville’s Junior League. And
yet, “these were women who left their own homes to go care for
children who were chronically ill.”
Centerstone executives want to use Nashville’s Dede Wallace
Campus to bridge the gap between treatments for mind and body,
bringing the capability to care for both under one roof.
Nashville’s Junior League, still quite active, was a top donor for
Centerstone’s Dede Wallace Campus, which cost $6 million.
That gap is a key issue when studying our nation’s health care
woes. In 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
released a report on collaborative care, explaining that while
mental health disorders are common and costly, only 25 percent of
patients with these issues receive proper treatment.
As a nod to the League’s history, Centerstone named its new
facility after the late, prominent Nashville Junior League member
Louise “Dede” Bullard Wallace, a Harpeth Hall alumna who was
known for her passion about caring for people with mental health
problems. The Junior League opened a facility to treat children
Page 12