Oklahoma County commits additional funds for mental health facility

By Alyssa Dalley-Schofield

Midwest City Beacon

Griffin Memorial Hospital looks to potentially expand into a new building in Oklahoma City.

“We are expanding our footprint of services that would be available for mental health and addiction,” said Heath Hayes, Chief Communications Officer. “There would be more access to the transportation and housing types of services for our discharged patients.”

The final decision has yet to be made regarding a new location. Hayes said the team owns a significant amount of land in Norman and is looking to sell some of it.

However, the team would still have a presence in Norman.

“We operate the Central Oklahoma Community Mental Health Center that also has urgent recovery center and crisis center components to it that we built,” said Hayes. “So, we would not be leaving Norman without treatment services for mental health and addiction.”

The team has received funding for the hospital and some of that requires an additional 100 beds to either the current location or the new location. Oklahoma County committed $1.5 million into the relocation from Norman to Oklahoma County.

This would provide over 300 beds for adolescents and adults alongside outpatient care. 

“My support of this additional investment demonstrates my commitment to addressing the pressing mental health needs of our residents,” said Oklahoma County Commissioner Carrie Blumert. 

The funds for this project are to be expended by the end of 2026 and the team hopes to have a decision to move forward soon.

I personally think that having a facility that is state of the art that is beautiful and that is put in a location where its highly trafficked and people see it and it is a symbol of hope and recovery and being known as a state that has a beautiful facility dedicated to mental health and addiction in such a prime location I think would be amazing,” said Hayes.