MATTOON - A 25-year veteran of mental health services, Lynette Ashmore recalls the time when some patients could spend up to three weeks in a local hospital, or maybe even a year at a state facility.

"Today, that's unheard of," Ashmore said.

Ashmore is the director of community services at the Coles County Mental Health Center, a department that handles major psychiatric disorders in adults. As with the treatment of many medical conditions, the target now is outpatient treatment whenever possible, she said.

"When I started, it wasn't unusual for someone to be in the hospital," Ashmore said. "Now, there's a focus on recovery in the community."

Having more patients to treat because of the increased emphasis on outpatient services is the main reason the center has outgrown its current home and bought property at the site of the former Blaw-Knox plant. Completing the move from midtown Mattoon to new location on Broadway Avenue East isn't finalized, center Executive Director Kathy Roberts said, but she gave a blunt assessment of why it's needed.

"We're out of space," she said. "We looked at further development at the current site, but it was limited."

The county Mental Health Association was incorporated in March 1965, and the center opened a year later.

It was about 15 years ago that the center moved to its current location, the former Hoots Haus restaurant building, 1300 Charleston Ave. in Mattoon. That location still houses many outpatient services and others, while the center's administration and other services are located in two nearby buildings, 1221 Broadway Ave. and 1309 Broadway Ave.

Roberts said all the center's services have grown "across the board," 5 percent or more a year. She and Ashmore both said the change is because now virtually all mental health treatment is on an outpatient basis.

Ashmore said the change started several years ago when the state and federal governments looked for cost savings and found it wasn't as expensive to treat people on an outpatient basis.

Hospitalization is necessary in some cases, she said, but reducing it also has helped the patients. Patients frequently get to stay in their homes and usually get their care from the same person or people throughout their treatment, she said.

"That's far better than working with somebody, then going to the hospital and working with someone else," Ashmore said.

Part of that is what led the center to open the Courtyard Square living facility, now the center's only site in Charleston, she said. Many people who were once at a state facility live there now and benefit from being able to have their medicine dispensed regularly and other more direct care if they can't live on their own, she said.

"That's a tremendous stride from being institutionalized," Ashmore said.

Roberts said there's no definite schedule for the move yet, but the first of the center's programs should be open at the new site by early summer. Some demolition has taken place at the new site, and people can expect to see more visible work in the next few weeks, she said.

The Mental Health Association bought about 5½ acres of the 40-acre Blaw-Knox property, and the new center will occupy the southwest corner of the site and should be open by late next year.

The new location will be an improvement in several ways, Roberts said, including bringing all the center's administration together, making the center more accessible to the public throughout the county, having it near its Flower Box vocational program and giving it room for future growth. She also noted the plans to develop the rest of the location.

"We hope to have a very attractive facility," Roberts said.

Dave Fopay can be reached at dfopay@;jg-tc.com or 348-5733.