Introduction: When the Name Changes, the Mission Doesn’t
If you’ve been searching for Grand Lake Mental Health and found yourself redirected, you’re not alone — and you’re in the right place. What began as the Grand Lake Mental Health Center in a small clinic 18 miles west of Grand Lake of the Cherokees in northeastern Oklahoma has grown into one of the most expansive behavioral health networks in the entire state.
In 2022, Grand Lake Mental Health Center officially rebranded to GRAND Mental Health, a name designed to reflect the organization’s remarkable growth and its expanded mission. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the core commitment: delivering world-class mental health services to Oklahomans who need them most — regardless of where they live, what they earn, or what insurance they carry.
This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about Grand Lake Mental Health, the transition to GRAND Mental Health, what services are available, who qualifies, how to access care, and why this organization continues to be a lifeline for tens of thousands of Oklahomans every single year.
The History of Grand Lake Mental Health Center
From a Single Clinic to Statewide Impact
The story of Grand Lake Mental Health begins in 1979. At that time, rural northeastern Oklahoma had few resources for individuals struggling with behavioral health challenges. Mental health was still largely misunderstood, stigmatized, and underserved — particularly in rural and low-income communities. Into that gap stepped Grand Lake Mental Health Center, a small but determined organization with a big mission.
Over the following four decades, the center grew steadily, adding clinics, hiring more staff, and expanding the range of services it offered. What started as a modest outpatient facility transformed into a regional powerhouse of behavioral health care, touching the lives of people across multiple counties.
By the time it rebranded in 2022, Grand Lake Mental Health Center had become far more than its name suggested. It was no longer just a center near a lake. It was a sprawling, multi-county behavioral health system employing more than 1,300 people and serving over 10,000 clients annually.
Why the Name Changed — and What It Means for You
The transition from Grand Lake Mental Health Center to GRAND Mental Health wasn’t just cosmetic. It was a strategic decision to signal a broader identity that matched the organization’s actual footprint and philosophy. The leadership team, including CEO Larry Smith, made clear that the new name was meant to reflect the organization’s innovative work and its commitment to reaching Oklahomans wherever they are.
“Mental health incidents are drastically on the rise,” Smith said at the time of the rebrand, “and the need for effective trauma-informed services has never been greater.”
For clients and potential clients, the practical takeaway is simple: if you were previously receiving services through Grand Lake Mental Health, your care continues uninterrupted. If you are seeking Grand Lake Mental Health services for the first time, you’ll find them under the GRAND Mental Health umbrella — with even more resources available than before.
What Is GRAND Mental Health? Services Explained
GRAND Mental Health — the organization formerly known as Grand Lake Mental Health Center — is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). This designation is important. CCBHCs are federally recognized clinics required to provide a comprehensive range of mental health and substance use services to anyone who requests them, regardless of diagnosis or insurance status.
This means that even if you don’t have insurance, even if you have limited income, and even if your mental health needs are complex — GRAND Mental Health is designed to serve you.
Here’s a closer look at the core services offered:
1. Outpatient Therapy and Counseling
The backbone of Grand Lake Mental Health services has always been outpatient therapy. This includes:
- Individual therapy — one-on-one sessions with a licensed therapist to address anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship challenges, and more.
- Family therapy — structured counseling designed to help family units navigate conflict, communication breakdown, or a loved one’s mental health crisis.
- Group therapy — a powerful and often underutilized form of treatment where clients work through shared challenges in a supported peer environment.
Sessions are available at physical clinic locations and through telehealth, giving clients flexibility in how and where they receive care.
2. Crisis Intervention and 24/7 Crisis Centers
One of the most vital services GRAND Mental Health — historically Grand Lake Mental Health — provides is around-the-clock crisis care. The organization operates multiple 24/7 Crisis Centers, providing immediate support for individuals experiencing a mental health emergency.
For rural Oklahomans, this is particularly significant. Access to emergency psychiatric care in rural areas has historically been severely limited. GRAND Mental Health addresses this gap directly, ensuring that a crisis at 3 a.m. in a small town doesn’t go unanswered.
In addition to its physical crisis centers, GRAND deploys a Crisis Intervention Response Team — behavioral health case managers who ride alongside law enforcement officers. This co-response model means that when someone in crisis interacts with police, a mental health professional is there to help de-escalate and connect that individual with appropriate care.
3. Substance Use and Addiction Treatment
The GRAND Addiction Recovery Center, located on the organization’s Tulsa campus, provides a comprehensive continuum of addiction treatment services including:
- Medically supervised detox and stabilization
- Residential treatment
- Outpatient and intensive outpatient programs (IOP)
- Relapse prevention planning
- Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine
Treatment modalities include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing, the matrix model, and individual, group, and family counseling. The center serves both adults and adolescents.
Recovery support services don’t end at discharge. GRAND provides peer recovery support specialists — individuals with lived experience of addiction who help clients navigate recovery, maintain sobriety, find housing, and secure employment.
4. Telehealth Services — Mental Health Anywhere, Anytime
Perhaps one of the most innovative aspects of what was formerly Grand Lake Mental Health is its approach to telehealth. GRAND Mental Health distributes thousands of iPads to clients, preloaded with its proprietary MyCare application. This gives clients 24-hour access to:
- Routine therapy sessions from home
- Medication management consultations
- Case management check-ins
- A one-touch crisis button connecting them instantly to a behavioral health specialist
This approach is particularly transformative in rural Oklahoma, where geographic isolation often keeps people from seeking care. With GRAND’s telehealth infrastructure, distance is no longer a barrier to quality mental health treatment.
5. Children, Adolescents, and Family Services
Grand Lake Mental Health has always recognized that mental health issues don’t wait until adulthood. GRAND provides dedicated services for children and families, including:
- Infant therapy focused on healthy attachment between infants and caregivers
- BISS (Behavioral Intervention Services in Schools) — placing behavioral health professionals directly in school settings to provide one-on-one support for students
- Wraparound services — intensive, individualized care coordination that brings together family, community, and clinical resources around a child or adolescent with complex needs
- Brief Stay Therapeutic Homes — a first-of-its-kind innovation in Oklahoma, where families in crisis can receive intensive, residential treatment together as a family unit, with the goal of keeping children at home rather than in state custody
This family-centered approach reflects a fundamental belief: that mental health treatment is most effective when it addresses the whole person within the context of their most important relationships.
6. Psychiatric and Medication Management Services
GRAND employs board-certified psychiatrists and licensed physicians who provide comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and ongoing medication management. For many individuals managing conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, ADHD, or PTSD, medication is an essential component of treatment.
Medication management at Grand Lake Mental Health — now GRAND — is integrated into broader treatment planning rather than offered in isolation. Clients work with a team of professionals who coordinate their psychiatric care with their therapy and case management services.
7. Integrated Health and Specialty Services
As a CCBHC, GRAND Mental Health integrates behavioral health with primary medical care. This means clients can access wellness coaching, dietary guidance from registered dieticians, occupational therapy, and health screenings alongside their mental health treatment.
Research consistently shows that people with serious mental health conditions have significantly poorer physical health outcomes. By integrating medical and behavioral care, GRAND addresses both dimensions of a person’s health.
Specialty programs include:
- Mental Health Court, Drug Court, and Community Sentencing — supporting individuals involved in the justice system
- Housing assistance and outreach — the GRAND “streets team” actively works in communities to reach people experiencing homelessness
- Employment and education assistance
- Transportation services
- Domestic violence services
- Social skills development groups
Who Can Access Grand Lake Mental Health Services?
One of the defining strengths of Grand Lake Mental Health — and now GRAND Mental Health — is its accessibility. Services are available to:
- Adults, children, adolescents, and families
- People with private health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid/SoonerCare
- Individuals who are uninsured or underinsured (sliding-scale fees and grant-funded programs exist)
- People experiencing homelessness
- Individuals involved in the criminal justice system
- People in rural communities with limited local resources
You do not need a referral to access most services. You can call, walk in, or connect through the telehealth system to begin the intake process.
Where Is Grand Lake Mental Health Located? The Current Footprint
What started as a single clinic near Grand Lake of the Cherokees now encompasses 27 clinics across 13 Oklahoma counties in northeastern and north-central Oklahoma. Key service areas include:
- Claremore (organizational headquarters)
- Bartlesville (Washington County office and Urgent Recovery Center)
- Stillwater (Payne County office)
- Tulsa (regional campus with full addiction recovery center)
- And many additional communities across northeastern and north-central Oklahoma
This geographic reach is a direct reflection of the organization’s founding principle: mental health care should be available close to where people live. For someone in a rural county who might otherwise have to drive hours to see a therapist, the availability of a nearby GRAND clinic — or a GRAND-provided iPad with telehealth access — is genuinely life-changing.
The Importance of Mental Health Care in Rural Oklahoma
To fully appreciate why Grand Lake Mental Health has been so significant, it helps to understand the context in which it operates. Rural Oklahoma faces significant mental health challenges that differ from those of urban areas:
Geographic isolation makes it difficult for people to access traditional mental health services. Without a provider nearby, many people simply go without care — often for years.
Stigma remains a significant barrier in rural and small-town communities, where seeking mental health treatment is still sometimes viewed as a sign of weakness or failure. GRAND Mental Health has worked actively to challenge this stigma, including through public education initiatives and its podcast “We Don’t Talk About That,” which addresses difficult mental health topics head-on.
Workforce shortages affect rural mental health care disproportionately. Licensed therapists and psychiatrists tend to cluster in urban areas, leaving rural residents underserved. GRAND Mental Health has prioritized building a robust workforce in northeastern and north-central Oklahoma, currently employing more than 1,700 people.
Economic hardship affects access to care, since mental health services can be expensive without adequate insurance coverage. GRAND’s CCBHC model, combined with its Medicaid and SoonerCare contracts, allows the organization to serve low-income clients who would otherwise have no access to care.
Technology and Innovation: The Future of Mental Health in Oklahoma
Grand Lake Mental Health’s transformation into GRAND Mental Health has been driven not just by growth but by innovation. The organization has embraced technology in ways that few behavioral health providers have matched.
The MyCare telehealth platform, distributed via thousands of iPads, allows clients to engage in therapy, crisis care, and case management from anywhere with internet access. Law enforcement partners have also been equipped with this technology, allowing officers to connect in real time with behavioral health professionals while on duty — a model that has shown promise in reducing unnecessary psychiatric hospitalizations and improving outcomes for individuals in crisis.
The integration of AI-assisted care planning tools is also on the horizon. As noted by GRAND’s leadership in their 2025 mental health outlook, artificial intelligence is helping behavioral health professionals develop more personalized treatment plans, track outcomes more accurately, and spend more quality time with clients rather than on administrative tasks.
How to Access Grand Lake Mental Health / GRAND Mental Health Services
If you or someone you love needs support, here’s how to connect with GRAND Mental Health:
Phone: (844) 458-2100 — available during business hours for scheduling and intake
Website: grandmh.com — includes a clinic locator, service descriptions, and telehealth access information
Walk-in: Many GRAND clinics accept walk-in clients for initial screenings and crisis services
Crisis Support: If you are in immediate crisis, GRAND’s 24/7 crisis centers and the crisis button on the MyCare app connect you instantly with a behavioral health professional
Insurance: GRAND accepts Medicare, Medicaid/SoonerCare, military insurance, private health insurance, and self-pay. Sliding-scale fees may be available for those without insurance.
Breaking the Stigma: A Note on Seeking Help
One of the most important things to understand about grand lake mental health services — and behavioral health care in general — is that seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness. The stigma that once surrounded mental health treatment has diminished significantly, but it hasn’t disappeared entirely.
GRAND Mental Health has been at the forefront of changing that conversation in Oklahoma. The organization’s messaging is clear: mental health struggles are not a character flaw. Depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, psychosis — these are health conditions, just like diabetes or heart disease. They deserve the same access to professional, compassionate, evidence-based treatment.
If you have been putting off seeking help because of shame, fear, or uncertainty about whether your struggles are “serious enough,” know this: you don’t need to be in crisis to deserve support. GRAND Mental Health serves clients across the full spectrum of need, from individuals managing mild anxiety to those navigating severe psychiatric illness or active addiction.
Frequently Asked Questions About Grand Lake Mental Health
Is Grand Lake Mental Health the same as GRAND Mental Health? Yes. Grand Lake Mental Health Center rebranded to GRAND Mental Health in 2022. All services, staff, and locations continued without interruption. The organization simply adopted a new name to better reflect its expanded reach across Oklahoma.
What counties does GRAND Mental Health serve? GRAND Mental Health currently serves 13 counties in northeastern and north-central Oklahoma, operating 27 clinics and centers across the region.
Do I need insurance to access services? No. GRAND Mental Health serves clients regardless of their ability to pay. The organization accepts multiple forms of insurance and works with uninsured clients through sliding-scale fees and grant-funded programs.
Can I access mental health services from home? Yes. GRAND’s telehealth platform allows clients to engage in therapy, medication management, and crisis support from home using a GRAND-provided iPad loaded with the MyCare application.
What if I’m in a mental health crisis right now? Contact GRAND Mental Health’s 24/7 crisis line or walk into one of the organization’s Urgent Recovery Centers. You can also call or text 988, the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for immediate support.
Conclusion: Grand Lake Mental Health — A Legacy of Care
The story of Grand Lake Mental Health is, in many ways, the story of mental health care in rural America. It begins with a recognition that people who are suffering deserve support — no matter where they live, what they earn, or how complex their needs may be. It continues with decades of determined growth, innovation, and advocacy.
Today, under the GRAND Mental Health name, that story keeps unfolding. With 27 clinics, over 1,700 employees, a groundbreaking telehealth platform, and an unwavering commitment to serving the most vulnerable Oklahomans, GRAND Mental Health stands as proof that community-based behavioral health care can change — and save — lives.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out. Help is available, and it is closer than you might think.