Aurora Mental Health and Recovery is opening a new facility that the organization said will provide “one-stop access” to mental healthcare and substance use care.

AMHR’s Potomac Pavilion, a new 48,000-square-foot facility at 1290 S. Potomac St. in Aurora, is opening services to the public later this month.

Kathie Snell, AMHR’s chief strategy and operations officer, told The Denver Gazette on Tuesday that the facility is an exciting upgrade for the organization, providing a space for people to come if they are having a mental health or substance abuse crisis where all of the services they need are in one place.

AMHR’s Connect to Care program, which offers walk-in mental health services, will open at the Potomac Pavilion on Jan. 26, according to the organization’s website. Its 24-hour programs, including a crisis walk-in clinic, crisis stabilization unit and withdrawal management, will open to the public at the facility on Jan. 31.

The facility has 16 crisis stabilization beds for people who need additional support. It also has a 45-bed unit for withdrawal management.

AMHR’s current facility at 2206 Victor St., Aurora, will close to the public on Jan. 26.

Currently, AMHR has crisis services in an old army barracks on the Anschutz Medical Campus, Snell said. The building, built as a bunker, “isn’t the most healing,” she said, and they haven’t been able to refresh it.

Almost five years ago, AMHR acquired the land for $7.3 million to build a new facility, and have since made the dream happen, she said.

“This has been a project and dream we’ve been working on for a long time to provide our community with easy access to services,” Snell said. “We want to be here to serve the community in a way people feel welcomed.”

The building cost $38.5 million, and about $24 million of the total project cost was covered through local and federal grants, according to AMHR officials.

Having so many services in one place benefits everyone, Snell said, including staff — who can better support each other when they’re working nearby, and other local partners like law enforcement — who can bring people to the facility if they don’t know what services they need and let mental health professionals figure it out from there.

“It takes those decisions out of the hands of people who have a lot of other things on their plate,” she said.

Staff will likely work closely with staff at the city’s new Regional Navigation Campus, Snell added, saying she anticipates doing “a lot of transportation back and forth” as homeless people with mental health and substance issues come into the campus.

AMHR serves about 20,000 people each year, and anticipates serving about 10,000 people at the new facility over the next year.

“We’re super proud of this achievement and it means a lot to the community as a whole to have a new state-of-the-art facility,” Snell said.

More information about the new facility and its services is available on AMHR’s website.