SUMTER, S.C. — A new mental health behavioral health hospital has opened in Sumter to service the county and the surrounding area. It can take referrals from nearby areas as far out as Charleston.
"There is a ridiculous need," Chief Executive Officer Dwan Gathers said. "I don't know what other word to use for it."
Gathers has been working in mental health for 15 years, seeing the need for resources across the state and in her hometown of Sumter.
"Our emergency departments are overcrowded with patients who need mental health care, the jails are overcrowded with patients who need mental health care, you see homeless individuals on the street, so opening a mental health facility its… it's needed," Gathers said. "Our goal is to get them back safe so that they can manage themselves once they leave the facility."
It's why she's working with Midlands Behavioral Health Hospital, a new facility in Sumter that serves people with mental health disorders ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia.
"To have this here in my hometown is breathtaking. I'm so excited about it, and I'm just so stoked with what we're going to do with this particular community," Gathers said. "It is my niche. I'm going to retire from mental health. I can't see me doing anything different. So to be able to marry my hometown with something I love so deeply is just at true added bonus."
"It's really easy accessible," Tina Winchip with SC Fundamental Facilities added.
Winship said that when the state issued a certificate of need for a mental health hospital, she helped look at a few different areas, ultimately settling on Sumter.
"Sumter was centrally located," Winchip said. "We had two interstates, three interstates that sort of merged. Easy to get off on 378, so it'd be great to be right down here."
That way, the hospital can serve people from Sumter and beyond.
"We can get referrals from Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Florence, anywhere pretty much locally and still be able to service the population," Gathers said. "Mental health is such a stigma in the community. We've got to stop that stigma. We've got to allow people to feel that they have a resource. When someone says, 'I'm not OK,' we're quick to say, 'Oh, you can handle this! You've got it.' They're telling you they're not OK. Let's listen to that, let's dig a little deeper, go a little further, figure out what's really going on."
The hospital began construction in December 2021 and opened last month. It was originally intended to serve patients 55 years and older, but since opening, Gathers said her staff has recognized a need in the community and is now serving patients 18 years and older.
"We'll continue to evolve, we'll continue to change and just meet the needs of the community," Gathers said.