Anoka County gained a critical mental health asset on Wednesday, Nov. 8, with the opening of Nexus Family Healing in East Bethel. As the eighth-ever Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in the state, the site contains 40 spots for youth aged 10-19 to receive up to nine months of long-term mental healthcare, and as those who spoke during the a ribbon-cutting celebration on Wednesday afternoon indicated, those spots are sorely needed.

“While this is a great celebration, this is really just a building right now,” Nexus CEO Michelle Murray said. “It’s an important building, but we’re at a critical stage in the mental health network. What we need to do is take this building and do with it what it was intended to do. We need to serve the most critical youth in our families and get them out of inpatient hospitals because there’s a backlog. We need to get them out of the police stations, county hallways, those areas where they’re stuck because they’re not getting those needs met.”