Behavioral health needs are a growing problem fueling emergency department crowing and long wait times. Howard County’s only hospital is addressing the challenge with a major capital project: a 7,000-square-foot behavioral health unit with 18 patient spaces.
That’s a major upgrade from the six behavioral health beds in the emergency department now.
To help complete the $10 million project, Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center has launched $3 million community fundraising campaign. One major element of the campaign is taking place this weekend: a benefit concert featuring jazz and R&B star Brian Culbertson.
The concert begins at 5 p.m. on Sunday Oct. 6 at Howard Community College, and tickets are still available.
Current space constraints at JHHCMC often means wait times of up to a day for a psychiatric evaluation, with patients in distress waiting in the the general emergency room.
“Forty percent of the general population will have a mental issue or behavioral issue at some point in their lives serious enough that they would warrant attention,” siad Dr. Andrew Angelino, head of the JHHCMC’s Psychiatry Department. “Our current space is wholly inadequate. It’s too small and it’s not very comfortable or conducive to healing.”
Dr. Shafeeq Ahmed, president of the hospital, said it is important for the community to help invest in more spaces and services for behavioral health patients is because “at any given time someone in your family or your friend network will need our services, and it’s just a matter of time.”
“And the nice thing about the Hopkins health system is that when you invest in the local hospital that money stays local for that hospital.”
The hospital foundations web site indicates that it has raised nearly $253,000 toward the $3 million goal to date.
In addition to Culbertson, an Illinois native who is founder of the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway, the Sunday concert will also feature jazz trumpeter Cindy Bradley and saxaphonists Brian Lenair.
If you go: The line-up for the benefit concert at Howard Community College Rouse Theater, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia.
- 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Food Trucks
- 4:30 p.m. Doors & Box Office Opens*
- 5:00-6:00 p.m. Brian Lenair
- 6:30-7:30 p.m. Cindy Bradley
- 8:00-9:30 p.m. Brian Culbertson
Tickets available HERE.
