SquareOne Youth and Family Crisis Center opens in Lincoln
New 24/7 facility offers mental health support for youth and families in crisis
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — After nearly a decade of planning and collaboration, local leaders celebrated the grand opening of the SquareOne Youth and Family Crisis Center in downtown Lincoln on Monday.
The facility, located at 220 S. 17th Street, will begin welcoming families Tuesday, October 20, offering around-the-clock behavioral health services for young people ages 19 and under and their families.
For families facing a mental health crisis, finding help hasn’t always been easy. Local leaders say the need for additional support has become increasingly urgent.
“The number of youths experiencing behavioral health crisis in our community continues to grow. At the same time, access to mental health services is significantly diminished,” said Christa Yoakum, chair of the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners.
SquareOne aims to help fill that gap by providing a centralized location where young people and their families can receive immediate support.
Services include mental health screenings, crisis therapy, short-term stabilization, safety planning and assistance connecting families with longer-term behavioral health resources.
The center also offers temporary mental health respite care for young people who need additional support during a crisis.
“When a family walks through these doors, they enter a space designed to heal and not overwhelm,” said Patrick Kreifels, regional administrator for Region 5 Systems.
The goal is to give families another option before a situation escalates to an emergency room visit or involvement with law enforcement.
Lancaster County Attorney Patrick Condon said the community has recognized the need for a facility offering immediate crisis stabilization for more than a decade.
“For over 10 years now our community recognized a major gap existed in the ability to respond to youths in crisis, a facility with open beds that could provide immediate de-escalation and stabilization,” Condon said.
Young people also played a role in shaping the new facility. Members of the Youth Advisory Council provided feedback on the center’s design, artwork and messaging to help create a welcoming environment where young people feel comfortable asking for help.
SquareOne is a partnership involving Lancaster County, Region 5 Systems, the City of Lincoln and community organizations, including CenterPointe and Family Service Lincoln.
While SquareOne has provided behavioral health crisis services through CenterPointe’s Campus for Health and WellBeing since July 2024, the new downtown facility brings services together in a dedicated space.
The center will serve Lancaster County and 15 other southeast Nebraska counties, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Youth and families needing assistance can contact the SquareOne Crisis Line at 402-899-8608.
