At Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for JPS Health Network’s Psychiatric Emergency Center, District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck asked people to close their eyes and raise their hands if they or someone they know struggled with mental illness.

Almost every single hand in the room went up.

“That is how significant the issue here is in our community for mental illness,” Beck said.

The new JPS Psychiatric Emergency Center will push to address this growing need. The facility opens Sept. 17 and will be the first in the county dedicated to psychiatric emergencies. By moving psychiatric emergency services from the 10th floor of the main campus to a free-standing 68,000-square-foot building, medical personnel will be able to better care for patients in crisis.

“We have created a place wh

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