Plans call for a new mental hospital to be built adjacent to the new Veterans Affairs hospital that is under construction near the Oklahoma State University Medical Center. The new VA hospital is depicted in this rendering from GH2 Architecture.
A proposed 102-bed mental hospital in downtown Tulsa moved closer to a final green light on Wednesday with a legislative panel’s approval of $38 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the estimated $70 million project.
The remaining costs are being covered by private donations and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
The Tulsa hospital, to be built adjacent to the new Veterans Affairs hospital on downtown’s west side, was one of two Department of Mental Health projects moved forward by the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief’s Health and Human Services Workgroup during a meeting at the state Capitol.
The new hospital will replace rented space in the former Doctors Hospital, now the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health at 2325 S. Harvard Ave., which the Department of Mental Health has occupied for 20 years.
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Construction is expected to begin next summer, and the new hospital is to open in November 2024.
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The other Department of Mental Health project involves allocating $87 million in ARPA money toward a new $137 million Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman. The remaining cost of the project would be financed by selling department-owned land, Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges told the work group.
Referring to both projects, Slatton-Hodges said, “They are so incredibly needed, because no matter how much work we do in communities, … when someone needs this level of of care, it really needs to be available.”
She said federal block grants, while “incredibly flexible,” cannot be used for inpatient facilities like the ones in Tulsa and Norman.
The work group also approved requests by the Department of Public Safety and the Oklahoma National Guard, including $11.9 million for new housing and a dining hall at Pryor’s Thunderbird Academy.
The proposals next go to the full joint committee, which is scheduled to meet next week. If approved by the full committee, the proposals will be sent to the Legislature for action in special session, possibly at the end of September.
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