News

At Integral Care's new Youth Crisis Respite Center, a stripe of rainbow paint lines the walls between brightly colored dorm rooms. A small closet brims with fantasy novels. In a breezy multipurpose room, a mural featuring cacti, honeybees and flowers surrounds the phrase, "Grow through what you go through." Designed by respite staff member Taylor Morgan, the mural is there to set the tone for kids navigating times of crisis. The respite center will begin serving children between the ages of 13 and 17 in September. Morgan, a mental health provider for the new respite center, said teens who are referred there might be engaging in self harm or experiencing suicidal ideation, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports has become more common in youth over the past decade. Others might be experiencing heavy conflict at home with parents or family members and may benefit from spending time in a neutral space for a few days to prevent a crisis from escalating.

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