As one Long Beach facility ends its psychiatric services, another one is scheduled to open in the coming weeks in the city’s Memorial Heights neighborhood.

Star View Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center, at 3210 Long Beach Blvd., will celebrate its grand opening July 30 with an official opening  August 1.

The 24/7 outpatient program, which is funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, will offer mental health assessment, crisis intervention and medication support, and feature a crisis walk-in center for all ages from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It houses 12 beds for adults and six beds for adolescents and can designate to write 5150 and 5585 involuntary psychiatric holds. It is the only known urgent care center in the city to offer such services.

“The facility is expected to save local law enforcement time in the field,” said Jill Shannon, director of communications for the parent company Stars Behavioral Health Group, in an email. “It will decrease the burden on hospital emergency rooms, and it will help prevent unnecessary incarceration by providing medical treatment instead.”

The center’s opening comes as Community Hospital in east Long Beach officially shuts down operations Tuesday, July 3. Aside from offering basic emergency services and operating the city’s only Sexual Assault Response Team, the hospital also offered psychiatric services and a total of 28 psychiatric beds.

The road to Star View’s opening was not a smooth one as some community members raised concerns about such a facility near a residential neighborhood, while the debate on who owned the property was the subject of a lawsuit. It was eventually unanimously approved by the Long Beach City Council in 2017.

The grand opening will begin at 10 a.m. on July 30 with a ceremony that is expected to include County Supervisor Janice Hahn, 7th District Councilman Roberto Uranga and a county department of mental health representative. For more information on the urgent care center click here. For a list of mental health resources provided by the city click here.

Stephanie Rivera is the community engagement editor. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @StephRivera88.