AltaPointe Health has finished a $15 million expansion of BayPointe Hospital in Mobile, adding 34 adult psychiatric beds and lifting the hospital’s total capacity from 104 beds to 138. The BayPointe Hospital expansion, celebrated this week, means the facility can now treat children, teenagers and adults under one roof, a change local leaders say fills a long-standing gap in mental health care for Mobile County.
The project was supported by $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money committed by the Mobile County Commission. Hospital leaders say the added space should ease a bed shortage that developed over the past year, shorten the time young patients spend waiting in emergency rooms, and give local courts a place to send people who are being held for psychiatric evaluation.
From a Children’s Hospital to a Hospital for All Ages
For years, BayPointe served a specific population: children and adolescents in need of inpatient psychiatric care. Adults from the area who needed hospitalization were treated at EastPointe, AltaPointe’s hospital across Mobile Bay in Daphne. That arrangement meant adult patients from Mobile County often had to be treated outside their home county, away from families and outpatient providers.
Last September, BayPointe began accepting a limited number of adult patients in Mobile. Doing so came at a cost to younger patients, because the hospital had to repurpose existing space to make room.
“When we accepted the adults, we converted 24 children’s beds into adult beds so there was a little bit of a bed shortage for about a year,” said Dr. Christina Talerico, a child and adolescent psychiatrist.
The new wing resolves that squeeze. With 34 additional adult beds in place, the children’s beds that were temporarily converted are no longer needed for adults, and BayPointe can serve all three age groups — children, teenagers and adults — at the same campus.
What the Expansion Adds
According to AltaPointe Health, the project brings several changes to the Mobile hospital:
- 34 new adult beds, raising total capacity from 104 to 138.
- Care for all ages, with children, adolescents and adults now able to be admitted at BayPointe.
- Faster access for young patients, particularly children ages 5 to 19 who need treatment for psychosis and behavioral and mood disorders.
- New classroom space for students with severe mental health issues from the Mobile County, Chickasaw and Saraland school systems.
- Capacity to support commitment petitions from local probate courts, including patients held for evaluation.
Talerico said the practical effect for families will be shorter waits. “We don’t have kids languishing in ERs as long as they have been and so we can accept them and have them get their treatment earlier,” she said.
Filling a Gap Mobile County Leaders Had Identified
The Mobile County Commission’s $6 million contribution came from the county’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funding. Commission President Connie Hudson said the investment was aimed squarely at a hole in the local system of care.
“When we first embarked on this there was really no facility in Mobile County that could serve the needs of the adult population,” Hudson said. “You had juveniles you had geriatric services but not for the regular adult population so we’re in the process of remedying that.”
The American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in March 2021, sent federal relief dollars directly to state and local governments through its State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Counties were given broad latitude to use the money for public health, economic recovery and infrastructure, and many communities across the country directed a portion toward behavioral health, which saw rising demand during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Under federal rules, local governments had to obligate their ARPA allocations by the end of 2024 and spend them by the end of 2026, which pushed many funded projects, including hospital and clinic construction, toward completion this year.
For Mobile County, putting part of that money into inpatient psychiatric capacity is a bet on a long-term need rather than a one-time expense. Psychiatric beds are expensive to build and staff, and communities without enough of them often see the consequences in crowded emergency departments and jails.
Why Emergency Room Waits Matter for Children
Talerico’s point about children “languishing in ERs” reflects a problem health systems across the United States have wrestled with for years. When a child or teenager arrives at a hospital emergency department in a mental health crisis and needs inpatient care, the next step is a transfer to a psychiatric unit. If no pediatric psychiatric bed is available nearby, the young patient may remain in the emergency department — a setting designed for medical emergencies, not psychiatric treatment — for hours or even days while staff search for an opening. The practice is often called “boarding.”
Boarding ties up emergency room space, and for the child it can mean a stressful, unfamiliar environment without the therapeutic programming a psychiatric unit provides. Adding capacity closer to home is one of the most direct ways to reduce those waits, and that is what hospital leaders say the BayPointe expansion is designed to do for children ages 5 to 19 in the region.
Keeping children close to home also makes it easier for parents and guardians to take part in treatment and discharge planning, and for young patients to transition back to outpatient therapists, schools and other supports once they leave the hospital.
Classrooms and Court-Ordered Evaluations
One piece of the project that may be less visible to the public is the addition of classrooms. AltaPointe Health said the new space will serve students with severe mental health issues from three public school systems: the Mobile County Public School System, Chickasaw City Schools and Saraland City Schools.
The Mobile County system is the largest public school district in Alabama, while Chickasaw and Saraland each operate their own smaller city school systems in the northern part of the county. For students whose mental health needs are serious enough to require hospitalization or intensive treatment, dedicated classroom space helps them keep up with schoolwork rather than falling behind during their care. Continuity in education can make it easier for a student to return to a regular classroom when they are ready.
The expansion also strengthens BayPointe’s role in the civil commitment process. In Alabama, petitions for involuntary commitment of a person believed to be mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others are handled through county probate courts. When a probate judge orders that someone be held for evaluation, that person needs to be placed in an appropriate treatment facility while the case moves forward.
AltaPointe Chief Executive Officer Tuerk Schlesinger said BayPointe now serves that function for more than one county. “The Mobile County Probate Court, Washington County Probate Courts, they admit their patients who are being held for evaluation. We have them here at this location,” Schlesinger said.
Having local beds available for court-ordered evaluations can reduce the distance patients and families must travel and can ease pressure on law enforcement agencies, which are often involved in transporting people under commitment orders.
About AltaPointe Health
AltaPointe Health is one of the largest providers of behavioral health services in Alabama and is based in Mobile. The nonprofit organization operates as a community mental health center, offering outpatient counseling, psychiatric care, substance use treatment, crisis services, and services for children and adults with serious mental illness, along with its inpatient hospitals — BayPointe in Mobile and EastPointe in Daphne. It also provides primary care services at some of its locations as part of an integrated approach to health.
The BayPointe expansion adds to that network at a time when demand for mental health services remains high across the Gulf Coast and the nation. By consolidating care for all ages at the Mobile campus while keeping EastPointe in Baldwin County, AltaPointe now has inpatient capacity on both sides of Mobile Bay.
What Families Should Know
For residents who may one day need these services for themselves or a loved one, a few general points are worth keeping in mind:
- In a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
- The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available around the clock by call or text at 988 for anyone experiencing a mental health or suicidal crisis, or for those worried about someone else.
- Inpatient psychiatric care is typically one step in a longer treatment plan. Families should ask about outpatient follow-up, school coordination for children and teens, and support resources before discharge.
- AltaPointe Health can provide information about its outpatient, crisis and hospital services directly, and families can ask their primary care provider or school counselor for referrals.
The completion of the project also marks a milestone for the partnership between AltaPointe and county government. Hudson’s description of the effort as a process of “remedying” the lack of adult services suggests county leaders see the new wing as an important step in building a fuller continuum of mental health care in Mobile County, from crisis response to hospitalization to outpatient follow-up.
With the new beds open, hospital leaders say the goal is straightforward: get people of every age the care they need sooner, and closer to home.