Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services – Harriman, Tennessee

Harriman, Tennessee’s non-profit rehabilitation center, Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services, is committed to provide thorough treatment for drug addiction, alcoholism, dual diagnosis, mental health issues, substance abuse, and opioid addiction. Ridgeview guarantees that the highest standards of care and quality are met by its services since it is a Joint Commission-accredited institution and is listed with the SAMHSA. 
 
Ridgeview’s beginnings may be traced to 1954, when the Pupil Personnel Department of the Oak Ridge schools, led by Ms. Sarah Ketron, realized how urgently the community needed a mental health facility to assist children as well as others. This program was launched in tandem with a state law that provided funding to localities who agreed to establish mental health clinics. One of the first towns in Tennessee to establish a community mental health organization, hire employees, and get financing from county, municipal, and state sources was Oak Ridge.
 

At 84 New York Avenue in Oak Ridge, the Mental Health Center of Anderson and Roane Counties, Inc. first opened its doors in 1957. Ten dollars a month was all that was required to rent the facility. The first psychiatrist and clinic director, Dr. Kenneth Crounse, oversaw the center’s vigorous hiring practices in an attempt to assemble a committed team. The facility had grown by 1968 and moved to 240 W. Tyrone Road, Oak Ridge. It opened as a fully functional outpatient clinic with administrative offices and a 22-bed adult inpatient hospital in October 1969. 
 
After being renamed the Regional Mental Health Center of Oak Ridge in 1970, the institution kept expanding and opened satellite clinics in the counties of Campbell, Scott, Roane, and Morgan. The hospital’s capacity was increased to 44 beds in 1976 with the addition of 22 beds for adolescents. In 1983, the facility changed its name to Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital & Center, Inc. to better represent the expansion of its inpatient offerings. 
 
Later, Ridgeview lowered its permitted bed capacity to 16 beds due to modifications in federal Medicaid criteria, shorter stays, and advancements in psychiatric medication. Ridgeview is still in operation today at 240 W. Tyrone Road, providing administrative and outpatient clinical programs in a variety of formats. 
 
The core tenets of Ridgeview’s philosophy are that people who seek assistance are vital collaborators in the healing process and that recovery is achievable. The institution offers secure, reasonably priced lodging as a vital part of the rehabilitation process and stresses the integration of mental health with medical treatment. To do this, Ridgeview owns, runs, and oversees a sizable housing continuum. 
 
Ridgeview is dedicated to providing accessible care, and as such, it takes most third-party payers and TennCare plans in addition to providing flexible payment choices depending on capacity to pay. The facility ensures that no one is denied care because of inability to pay by operating with convenient hours and having personnel on call 24/7 for emergencies. 
 
Serving more than 7,500 people yearly at many locations in a five-county region, Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services is still an essential community resource, accounting for more than 100,000 interactions annually.