Mental health units to open in Lowcountry to treat urgent cases [Video]

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – New units designed to treat people who in a mental health crisis are set to open in the Lowcountry.

Trident Medical Center has been operating an EmPATH mental health crisis treatment unit for two months while MUSC Health plans to open two units in early 2025 after each received state funding to expand behavioral health care.

EmPATH is an acronym for emergency psychiatric assessment treatment and healing. Since opening in the spring of 2024, Trident Health’s unit has been in demand.

In the summer of 2023, The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is awarded $45.5 million in grants to 13 facilities to build these crisis stabilization centers for patients who need specific evaluations.

“It fills a gap that we really have a need for in our area, which is so folks that need something more than outpatient care, but they don’t need a full hospitalization either,” Live Oak Mental Health Hospital …