WARREN, Ohio - With the fate of the Trumbull Regional Medical Center up in the air, mental health experts are worried about losing the Behavioral Health Unit in the hospital. 

“It's going to be a huge loss to our community,” April Caraway, Executive Director of the Trumbull County Mental Health & Recovery Board said. 

If someone goes to an emergency room during a mental health crisis they are typically sent to one of the 35 beds in the unit.

If that option is gone, patients will be stuck in a limbo when they reach out for help. 

“We’ve had patients linger in the emergency department for days on end and this will just happen more often and families get frustrated, the patient gets frustrated, people leave sometimes without getting the help they need and people could die,” Caraway said.  

Once a patient is transferred to a bed in the unit they typically stay for eight days. There, they receive help including medications and counseling until they are discharged to another facility or their own home. 

Trumbull Regional is the only hospital in the county with a behavioral health unit. If it closes the board is planning to send patients to other counties for help - but that means beds in those units will fill up faster.

“Losing these beds is not going to just devastate Trumbull County but there's going to be a ripple effect into Mahoning County, Portage County and the surrounding areas,” Caraway said.

Caraway said her office has been in talks with the unit at Mercy Health’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Youngstown as a possible place to send people. However, she said it could take hours for a bed to open up there for Trumbull County patients. 

If the Trumbull Regional does shut down, Caraway fears people in crisis will have to be sent even further away from their families to get help such as Cleveland. Her other fear is people won't be able to find a bed at all leaving them without help for their mental health.