- In Bangor, Maine, New Crisis Stabilization Center Aims To Reduce Jail And Emergency Department Use While Connecting People To Behavioral Health Care. For WABI, Connor Magliozzi reports that a new crisis receiving center is opening to provide “immediate, low-barrier support” for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Crisis Services Manager Alexis Petterson said the goal is “reducing jail utilization, emergency department utilization, and getting folks connected with the mental health services they need in their community,” while maintaining “high collaborations with local law enforcement so that they’re able to come here instead of [jails, emergency rooms].” The center will use an “interdisciplinary team” of crisis workers, peer support specialists, nurses, psychiatric medication managers and clinicians, with plans to expand to 24/7 operations because “crisis doesn’t happen on a timeline.”
- In Louisville, Kentucky, First Mental Health Crisis Stabilization Center Opens, Giving People “A Place To Go That Isn’t A Jail Cell And It’s Not An Emergency Room.” For Spectrum News 1, Julia Narvaez Munguia reports that Louisville’s first mental health crisis center is now open, providing walk-in help during a mental health emergency “without waiting for an appointment or going to an emergency room.” Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Emily McKinley said officers previously faced the questions: “Can we take the person to jail? Has there been a crime committed? Can we take them to the hospital? … or do we leave them in the same circumstance that we found them?” Now, this center gives first responders a new place to take someone in the throes of a mental health crisis where they can receive mental health treatment. University of Louisville Associate Professor Brian Schaefer explained that option had been missing in the city: “that third leg, a place to go that isn’t a jail cell and it’s not an emergency room.”
- In Loudoun County, Virginia, A New 24/7 Crisis Center Will Offer Urgent Psychiatric Care, 23-Hour Stabilization, And Short-Term Crisis Stays Under One Roof. Loudoun County announced the completion of its new 20,500-square-foot Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Center with “around-the-clock care for adults who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis.” The “no wrong door” facility will provide urgent psychiatric care, a 23-hour crisis assessment and stabilization unit and a short-term stay unit, with “no individual” turned away. The county says the center is designed to “close gaps created by a lack of sufficient access to public and private psychiatric hospitalization beds in Loudoun and across the Commonwealth.” Department Director Margaret Graham said the facility “enables us to care for those whose calls for help are not always heard.”
