Bucks County Breaks Ground On First In PA Behavioral Crisis Center

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Bucks County broke ground on Tuesday for Bright Path Center, a first-of-its-kind behavioral crisis and substance use recovery center in Pennsylvania.

The new center, a partnership between Bucks County, the Lenape Foundation, Doylestown Health and the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission, will be a beacon across the county for those in crisis, officials said at the groundbreaking.

"This center will truly light the way for behavioral health care and substance use recovery in our community," said Sharon Curran, president and CEO of the Lenape Valley Foundation."It will be a bright path leading to recovery resiliency for everyone who enters its doors."

The new center, which will bring substance use recovery and mental health treatment together under one roof, will help an estimated 7,500 people annually and put Bucks County at the forefront of a new approach to crisis treatment, officials said.

The center will feature separate areas for children and adults and areas designed for assessment, referral, and rehabilitation. Space will also be devoted to withdrawal management, and in the most extreme cases, to those who need involuntary commitment.

"These services are not new to Bucks County. But what is new is how we are putting them together in a center specifically designed for these services," said Curran.

A rendering showing the Bright Path Center to be built on Hospital Road in Doylestown Township.

"When people are seen at a site that is designed for the services being offered several things happen," said Curran. "The first thing is that the individual who is there for services is safe. They are cared for and they are treated well. I'm not saying that right now they aren't. What I'm saying is we kick it up a notch to treating specifically why they are there.

"The people seeing them and treating them are specialized in doing exactly what they are there to do," she continued. "What happens from there is the person gets better quicker and faster. Most importantly, it decreases the trauma for that individual and for their loved ones. And when you decrease that trauma then, in the future, they may need less services. So in a way, we're almost looking to put ourselves out of business. We don't want repeat customers. We want people to get better, stay better, and be out in the community."

Inside the Bright Path Center.

Commissioner Diane Ellis Marseglia, who has been a driving force behind the project from the beginning, stood with her fellow commissioners - Bob Harvie and Gene DiGirolamo - at the site of the future center on Hospital Road poised to take the next step in the center's evolution - turning the first spades of dirt on a project that will make a difference in the lives of many for decades to come.

"As we stand here today, it isn't lost on me that Sunday is Mother's Day," said Marseglia. "So while it's not my favorite day and while it brings up all sorts of emotions for lots of people, it is the reason that I will put that shovel in the ground today - in honor of all the mothers who will be able to come here with their children - adult and young - for help and all those mothers who didn't have a place like this to come to before.

"Today," she said, "the bright path begins."

Marseglia said the county has waited a long time for a place like Bright Path.

"We expected the federal and state government was going to build us a center like this. After all, they are the ones who closed our inpatient hospitals and stopped the funding in the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s," she said. "But as we took a look around, we realized they weren't going to step up and we were going to have to do it ourselves. Everyone here found their energy and their will and worked together to come up with this plan and then they found the money. "

Funding for the project has come from pandemic recovery funding, the drug and alcohol commission, the opiate settlement, county dollars, and federal and state grants secured by Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and State Senator Frank Farry.

"The choice of the name, Bright Path, is perfect in so many ways," said Harvie. "We have in this country the greatest healthcare system in the world if you can access it ... This effort by county, state, federal, private agencies is the perfect example, we think, for the rest of this Commonwealth and this country in terms of what we need to do to effectively help those people who need it most, to get past the stigma of mental health and substance abuse disorder, to get past all the negative feelings and just get them help."

(Photo by Jeff Werner)

DiGirolamo, who served as a state representative before becoming county commissioner, said as chairman of the human services committee he traveled throughout the Commonwealth listening to family members who tragically lost loved ones to drug and alcohol substance abuse and mental health issues.

"There's a common thread in talking especially to parents. The common thread is the struggle to navigate how to get the right kind of help for their loved ones. And it's a challenge. And I know because I struggled trying to navigate the system with my own son who was a heroin addict.

"That's why this place that we're going to build here is so important to the residents of Bucks County," said DiGirolamo. "We're going to save lives with this facility. I know it, I know it, I know it. We're going to save lives because people are going to be able to come here and drop their loved ones off and they're going to get the help and treatment that they need. This is going to work and other people are going to look at this and want to do the same."

People who are struggling with substance use disorder or a mental health crisis need to know where to turn, said Rachael Neff, the county's director of human services. "Bright Path will be opening doors that will be welcoming, respectful, treating people with dignity and sending the message that 'We are here to help.'"

Doylestown Township officials join the county and its partners in breaking ground for Bright Path Center. (Photo by Jeff Werner)