The Palm Beach County Health Care District announced the $145 million Two Waters Mental Health Center during a special session March 12, marking a new approach to treating mental health emergencies in the county. The district paid $16.7 million for nearly 10 acres on Benoist Farms Road north of Southern Boulevard and west of Florida’s Turnpike for the center. Construction begins next year, and the facility is slated to open in 2029.
Dr. Margie Balfour, a national leader in mental health crisis care who contributed to national guidelines, told district officials the new approach is cheaper, frees police for crime-fighting and treats patients in a way that keeps them out of crisis in the future. “The defaults in most communities is that you call 911 for chest pain, you get an ambulance. Staff take care of your medical needs and take you to the emergency room. Whereas for mental health, the default is 911 if you’re suicidal, you get law enforcement,” Balfour said. “If the response was the same for medical emergencies, you wouldn’t stand for that.”
Balfour, a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona, emphasized the financial burden of current mental health crisis response methods. “Leaving mental health crisis care to the county jail and hospital emergency departments, as is usually the case, is the most expensive approach,” she said. The current system often depends on receiving care from people who do not specialize in mental health, creating inefficiencies and poor outcomes for patients.
National data reveals significant gaps in mental health emergency care across the country. Half of hospital emergency departments in the country do not have psychiatric services, according to a national survey by the Mayo Clinic published in 2022. Waits in hospital hallways for mental health patients before being seen by a doctor average 18 hours, the 2025 Behavioral Health True Costs Report by Connections Health Solutions states. Police can spend hours waiting with patients before they’re treated, which takes them off the streets and away from crime-fighting duties.
The mental health crisis carries deadly consequences, with 49,000 people taking their lives last year in the United States. At least two-thirds, some say up to 90%, involve people with severe mental illness, according to Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health for 13 years. People treated in the U.S. mental health system have extraordinarily shorter life spans - 23 years less than the average U.S. life span of 79, a 2006 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration revealed.
Current statistics show 6% of adults and 11% of youths ages 18 to 25 live with serious mental illness, which causes severe impairment, according to a 2022 national survey by SAMHSA. Half of adolescents have some kind of mental disorder, the survey also found. “The more crisis services that you have, that’s gonna get a lot of people asking for help,” Balfour said, explaining how expanded services encourage people to seek treatment before reaching crisis levels.
The new crisis system in Palm Beach County will start with calls to a crisis line answered by workers trained in mental health emergencies. The national hotline number for mental health - 988 - launched in 2022, and patients can also call 211 in Palm Beach County. Operators trained in mental health care can send mobile response teams to people in crisis, arrange transportation to the crisis center, or make appointments with professionals while callers remain on the phone.
Two mobile response teams currently serve Palm Beach County around the clock at no cost to patients. These teams can involve police officers or operate without law enforcement, depending on how emergency operators assess each crisis situation. The Two Waters facility will provide a dedicated location where police, paramedics, or mobile teams can bring patients for specialized mental health treatment instead of jail or hospital emergency rooms.
Construction of the Two Waters Mental Health Center is scheduled to begin next year, with the facility expected to serve Palm Beach County residents starting in 2029.