A youth crisis center is set to open in Bonneville County in May.

Badger Inc., an affiliate of Rehabilitative Health Services, was one of four organizations to receive a grant from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections to open the crisis centers.

Rehabilitative Health Services, which has provided mental health care in East Idaho for 25 years, also runs the Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Idaho Falls.

The new center will provide emergency care for children under 18 who are struggling with mental health or addiction, including providing a bed for up to 24 hours. Patients can receive medical screenings and assessments and get access to other community services that can help them.

Grants were also given to Southwest District Health, Pathways of Idaho and Proactive Behavioral Health.

“These centers will make it easier and faster for young Idahoans to get help when they’re in crisis,” Dave Jeppesen, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said in a news release. “By doing so, we expect we will reduce the rate of youth hospitalization and incarceration in Idaho.”

In addition to providing emergency care for individuals when it may not otherwise be available, crisis centers have provided law enforcement and first responders alternatives when responding to incidents involving mental health.

Bonneville County Sheriff Samuel Hulse has said that before the Behavioral Health Crisis Center opened in 2014, police responding to someone having a mental health crisis only had two options: take them to a hospital, or take them to jail.

The crisis center provided a third option, though an individual could only be taken to a center with their consent.

The Behavioral Health Crisis Center only serves adults, however, leaving limited options for juveniles struggling with the same issues.

Like with the adult crisis center, patients can only be taken to the crisis center voluntarily and, because they are juveniles, will need the consent of a parent or guardian.

The youth crisis center also will share an advisory board with the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, with experts in juvenile mental health added.

DeVere Hunt, CEO and co-founder of Rehabilitative Health Services, said the organization is now looking for a location to set up the new youth crisis center.

The center is looking to hire between 35 and 40 people for the new facility, including nurses and a clinical director. Hunt said the need to hire several people to open the center by May 1 has kept him busy.

“We are building this plane as we fly it,” Hunt said.

Those who wish to apply to work at the youth crisis center can contact Hunt by email at Ybhccdirector@gmail.com.