EAST BETHEL, Minn. — In front of state leaders and dozens of guests, 14-year-old Luke Schneider spoke of the time he spent 10 months in a Nexus Family Care mental health facility.
"On the day I was going to discharge, I didn't want to leave because the staff were like my family," he said. "I made a promise to a staff named Mikey and that promise was that I will come back and work with him when I become an adult."
His mother, Sara Schneider, says the nonprofit provided updates throughout his stay.
"He grew emotionally and physically right before our eyes," she said. "Was he perfect? No, but was he a threat to our family anymore? No."
There are different levels of care. While Schneider stayed in a residential treatment facility in Mille Lacs, Nexus Family Care will soon open a psychiatric residential treatment facility in East Bethel, Anoka County.
Mental health experts at a ribbon cutting Wednesday explained that PRTFs are a level above residential treatment facilities and a level below inpatient psychiatric residential treatment facilities.
The new facility is set to open Nov. 29 and will be Nexus Family Care's first PRTF in Minnesota. CEO Dr. Michelle Murray says it will eventually provide 40 beds for youth ages 10 to 19 who are in need of longer-term, specialized mental health care. The average stay is expected to be about 9 months.
"We need to serve the most critical youth and their families and get them out of the inpatient hospitals because there's a backlog," Murray said. "We need to get them out of the police stations. We need to get them out of the county hallways."
Nexus-East Bethel has an intake exam room, video calling booths, main living areas, classrooms, shared bedrooms and shared bathrooms with padded doors on the stalls.
Nexus Family Care says three girls are already enrolled to come. The facility says it's intentionally admitting girls first due to need.
According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, 439 young people ages 6-18 have gone to a PRTF in Minnesota since the first one opened in the state in 2018.
Additional information on the new facility and the programs it offers are available here.
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