People with mental illness have new Bozeman facility

By JODI HAUSEN, Chronicle Staff Writer

The services at Gallatin Mental Health Center haven't changed but the space in which they are delivered has.

In February, the center opened Hope House and Eck House -- a mental health crisis center and a four-unit subsidized housing facility for people with mental illness, respectively.

Now, two more facilities - Gallatin County Outpatient Services and the Open Arms Drop-In Center -- have opened for business.

"We're kind of in the fogginess of moving in," Scott Malloy, director of the center, said sitting in his office during a brief break Monday.

With vaulted ceilings, wood floors and walls and furnishings in muted earth tones, all the facilities at the campus have a more homey feeling than a typical institution for patients with mental illness. Instead of fluorescent lights, numerous large windows and warm-toned lighting fixtures brighten the rooms.

The 8,700-square-foot outpatient facility boasts a dividable conference room with video-conferencing capabilities, offices and "a really awesome lobby," Malloy said, explaining that their former entryway in the Medical Arts Building on North Willson Avenue was about the size of his current office.

Next door, a fish swam around a small plastic container on an end table, waiting to be plunked back into its bowl at the new drop-in center Monday.

Clients sitting on recently-installed upholstered furniture there were pleased with their new space that houses two offices, a small meeting room, laundry, deck with barbecue and kitchen and pantry lined with red Folgers coffee containers.

"I love it," said John Watson, the drop-in center's director. "We've gone from two rooms at North Willson (to this) in two years."

The 50 mental health center employees did a majority of the moving over the weekend, along with the help of offenders sentenced to the Gallatin County work release program, Malloy said.

If there is a missing piece from the new campus, it is public transportation directly to it, both directors said. Although it us less than a half-mile walk from Bozeman Deaconess Hospital where the Streamline bus already stops, Malloy said he is hoping Streamline will add a stop off Haggerty Lane in front of the campus when the free bus service revamps its maps in the fall.

To celebrate the campus and Mental Health Month, the center, which assists up to 1,000 clients at any given time, will be hosting an open house next week and a series of talks throughout the month of May.

For more information, call 522-7357.