The state-of-the-art Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center on Manhattan's Lower East Side represents a $140 million investment in health care.

The 2-year-old facility is breaking the stigma when it comes to addressing mental illness.

"A therapeutic bed-and-breakfast"

Dr. Grant Mitchell, the center's chair of psychiatry, said patients, their families and members of the community all weighed in on what they wanted to see in the center.

"The importance of tall ceilings, abundant natural light, extensive use of artwork, outdoor gardens and fresh air, the things that we all know are important to overall wellness," he said.

Patients are evaluated in a single intake area for medical and behavioral issues.

For mental health treatment, they might stay at the center, which has single rooms, private baths and unlocked doors in a space designed with a homier feel.

The center can serve as an alternative to a psychiatric ward once patients are out of danger.

"Some people refer to this as a therapeutic bed-and-breakfast," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said that sense of community and intention in design is vital to help patients heal, with a multitude of physical and mental health services under one roof.

Patients in need of help can also go straight to the center instead of going to a hospital first.

"We can completely bypass that emergency room experience, which many people find to be almost traumatic in some cases," Mitchell said.

"It really helps reduce the stigma of whatever you think is stigmatizing"

Rosemary McGinn, a client of the center, said she has been struggling with mental health and substance use issues for decades.

"I was really struggling with chronic depression that was medicated but not very successfully," she said.

She said the Behavioral Health Center is "just more human" than her previous experiences with trying to get help.

"When I see people in the waiting room, I don't even know what they're there for. They don't know what I'm there for. So it really helps reduce the stigma of whatever you think is stigmatizing, like substance abuse or psychiatry," she said.

In fact, the aim of the center is to treat all patients with dignity, compassion and respect. 

"The client-centered approach that they have here is very different than what our team has seen in a lot of other institutional settings," said Alyssa Wrinkle, program director for Manhattan Outreach Consortium's Downtown Goddard Team. "I really felt for maybe one of the first times in my career that I had partners in an institutional setting that really understood what it took in those types of situations to engage clients in care and to provide really high-caliber services."

The Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center is located at 45 Rivington St. and is open to anyone who may need care.