Iowa governor Kim Reynolds and lieutenant governor Adam Gregg were among the guests attending an opening ceremony for Johnson County’s new GuideLink Center in Iowa City on Thursday.

The center opened to the public Monday in what was described as a soft launch. It will serve as a location for immediate mental health and substance abuse care in conjunction with local organizations and municipalities.

“What I’ve seen over the last year, the coordination and collaboration to serve Iowans holistically, has just been incredible,” Reynolds said at the event.

She said her administration was looking forward to working with the GuideLink Center and similar endeavors statewide in the future.

“This a behavioral health, urgent care facility that’s put in place to take care of the whole person, and it’s the right thing to do,” Reynolds said.

Other guests invited to the discussion included nursing directors and local mayors.

“From diverse organizations, hospitals, law enforcement, EMS, public service agencies…we’ve had a group of people who’ve made this a reality,” committee chairperson Lance Clemsen said among his opening remarks. “Our guiding principles were [to be] different, innovative, to think of the whole person. Don’t let ‘we’ve never done that’ be the case.”

Michael Flaum, a psychiatrist from University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, said the plan to build the center had been in place for more than a decade. He and other GuideLink personnel travelled across the country, looking at similar centers and applying their successes to GuideLink while ensuring they would work in a local setting.

Such is the nature of this special kind of facility.

“We like to think we’re not in-patient, we’re not out-patient, we’re kind of this in-the-middle thing that hasn’t really been defined yet,” GuideLink medical director Monika Jindal said.

Changes still need to be made to ensure the center can run smoothly, Jindal said, such as allowing ambulances to drop patients off there instead of at a hospital.

She also discussed how staff would be trained to minimize potential burnout from documentation and bureaucratic paperwork.

After all, the center intends to be a place for healing, not stress. Among its services include detoxification and sobering services. Additionally, it offers a place to stay and recuperate for those suffering depression (including postpartum depression), breakdowns or suicidal thoughts.

When an individual needs care that the center cannot provide, then that’s where the links to other local organizations come in handy. The GuideLink Center’s list of official partners should continue to expand over time.

“The resources, the partnerships, it’s all done well and it’s all about serving the individual,” Reynolds said. “To come up with a system like this, where you can have all your needs met, it’s an incredible concept.”