OMAHA, Neb. -- At least one in four Nebraska families struggle with mental health issues, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

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A new center to treat mental health patients will open next week at 25th and Harney streets in Omaha. The old Richard Young Center will be the site of Lasting Hope Recovery Center, which is being described as a place of refuge for individuals and families struggling with mental illness.

The new in-patient facility is designed to treat a range of mental illnesses.

"It's estimated mental illness affects one in five families in America," said co-founder Ken Stinson.

Maggie Graham said that after her sister's death, she became part of that statistic.

"I was coming home, sleeping, unable to do anything else but sleep," Graham said.

Graham was diagnosed as bipolar, and as part of her recovery, she helped design the rooms in the new 64-bed facility.

The founders of Lasting Hope said the recovery center was born out of the passage of 2004's LB 1083.

"LB 1083 called from the phased reduction and elimination of services in Norfolk and Hastings centers and corresponding expansion of community-based health services," Stinson said, referring to the state's mental health facilities in those cities.

Lasting Hope Executive Director Tom Hickey said that although the facility is receiving state funds, there's also been more than $25 million raised in private funding.

"One of the beauties of Lasting Hope is it's a public-private partnership," Hickey said.

Graham said the product of that partnership will help those who are struggling with mental illness.

"Lasting Hope says it in the name -- there is hope and you can get it back," Graham said.

Once the facility opens on Tuesday, the staff plans to admit about three patients per unit per day and expects to be at full capacity by the end of next month.

Doctors said most patients will stay about a week, but some people will need to stay for up to a month or longer.