Where Is This Happening?

Crisis stabilization centers are operating or under active development in more than 40 states. The geographic spread is broad, but the distribution is uneven: dense in states that have made crisis stabilization a legislative priority, thinner in states without dedicated funding or Medicaid reimbursement infrastructure, and often absent in rural areas where construction costs and population density make standalone facilities difficult to sustain.

Statewide Systems

SAMHSA’s 2025 National Guidelines identify statewide systems as the most complete implementation of the crisis continuum model, with Arizona, Ohio, and Virginia cited as leading examples.

Arizona is the reference implementation. Maricopa County has operated integrated crisis services since the late 1980s, including facility-based stabilization centers alongside 24/7 crisis phone lines and mobile teams. The system is fully Medicaid-financed and has influenced the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) national guidelines. Andrew Medina, the state’s Medicaid crisis administrator, describes what sets Arizona apart: “We have created a system that’s available to any Arizonan whenever they need the help,” operational around the clock, 365 days a year, statewide, for more than three decades. Connections Health Solutions, which has operated the Phoenix Crisis Response Center since 2009, reports serving more than 25,000 people annually — a figure the company describes as making it the largest dedicated psychiatric emergency facility in the nation.

Ohio has pursued statewide expansion with sustained investment. Governor Mike DeWine committed $90 million to “strengthen mental health crisis response services” statewide, with Dayton serving as the flagship example of the “three-tier” model. The state launched crisis centers across multiple counties, expanded youth mobile response to all 88 counties via the Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) program, and built the Franklin County Crisis Care Center in Columbus, which opened in September 2025 with a 72,000-square-foot facility serving up to 80 people at a time.

Virginia built significant crisis infrastructure under former Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “Right Help, Right Now” initiative, which committed $58 million to “building emergency room alternatives to care for patients experiencing a behavioral health crisis.” Virginia Secretary John Littel described the investment’s goals as “ensuring same-day care for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis” and “reducing the burden on law enforcement officers.” The infrastructure funded under this initiative remains in place and continues to expand under the Spanberger administration.

Georgia has pursued a multi-center strategy coordinated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. A 2023 Alvarez & Marsal study recommended eight new crisis centers by 2032, with immediate need identified in metro Atlanta, Central Georgia, and coastal regions. Three centers opened between 2023 and 2025 in Fulton, Laurens, and Richmond counties, with Clayton County next in the pipeline.

South Carolina invested $45.5 million in infrastructure grants in June 2023, with Medicaid coverage for hospital-based crisis stabilization services added effective January 1, 2024.

Major City Implementations

Multiple large cities have opened centers since 2020, documented across the states below.

Salt Lake City opened the Huntsman Mental Health Institute facility on March 31, 2024 at a cost of $64 million. The facility houses 200 mental health professionals and serves approximately 10,000 patients annually, with capacity for both 23-hour observation (45 people) and seven-day average stabilization stays (24 beds). The Salt Lake Tribune described it as the “first of its kind not just in Utah, but also in the United States” for its combination of immediate stabilization, short-term stays, continuing outpatient services, and on-site clinics for physical and legal needs.

Memphis opened a $34 million, 55,000-square-foot center in Binghampton staffed by 120 clinicians, psychiatrists, nurses, peer support specialists, counselors, and social workers. Services are free of charge regardless of insurance status. A dedicated first-responder drop-off area with key card access allows officers to complete transfers in 15 to 30 minutes.

Albuquerque built a three-zone facility incorporating a 16-bed Crisis Triage Center for medium-acuity cases, a peer-based “living room” for low-acuity walk-ins, and expanded University of New Mexico Hospital psychiatric emergency services with dedicated space for both the Albuquerque Community Safety Department and law enforcement. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the ribbon cutting.

Atlanta opened the Fulton County Behavioral Health Crisis Center on August 8, 2024, in southwest Atlanta. The center is operated by Grady Health System, funded through $15 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and $9.4 million in state funds. It served more than 500 patients in its first six months. A second North Fulton County center entered planning in 2025.

Columbus, Ohio opened the Franklin County Crisis Care Center on Harmon Avenue in September 2025. The $60 million, 72,000-square-foot facility is operated by Recovery Innovations and serves adults 18 and older regardless of immigration status, insurance, or residency. It can serve up to 80 people simultaneously and is expanding through 2027 with additional inpatient capacity.

Dayton, Ohio uses its crisis center as the anchor of a three-tier model explicitly named as a statewide model by Governor DeWine. The center has “nurses, psychology professionals, social workers and peer support” and completes the county’s crisis response system.

Des Moines (Polk County) opened its stabilization center and exceeded initial volume projections, admitting more than 30 people in the first 30 days.

Birmingham, Alabama opened the Craig Crisis Care Center with 32 temporary beds and 16 extended-stay beds, replacing the prior model of routing psychiatric emergencies to the ER or jail.

Roanoke, Virginia operates the Blue Ridge Behavioral Health Care Center as a “crisis campus” with 24/7 service for mental health and substance use crises, part of Virginia’s Marcus Alert system, which requires trained mental health professionals (rather than law enforcement) to respond to mental health calls.

Mid-Size and Regional Programs

Regional collaborations have enabled smaller jurisdictions to build crisis stabilization capacity.

Juneau, Alaska opened an $18 million center that provides the first crisis stabilization service for adolescents and adults in Southeast Alaska, a region with the state’s highest youth suicide rates.

Fort Collins, Colorado operates a center explicitly open to all Larimer County residents of all ages regardless of ability to pay.

Central Pennsylvania demonstrates the regional collaboration model: three counties (Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry) pooled resources to open a center none could have sustained independently.

Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas area) converted an unused psychiatric hospital into a crisis stabilization unit using a $10 million county investment, describing it as “first of its kind” in the county.

Travis County, Texas (Austin) launched a 25-bed facility with plans to expand into a more permanent, larger structure.

DuPage County, Illinois opened a center accepting all ages with or without insurance, described by Board Chair Deborah Conroy as “the missing piece in our system, keeping people out of emergency rooms and jail.”

Sarpy County, Nebraska (Omaha area) opened a regional crisis stabilization and resource center designed to divert people from emergency rooms and the criminal justice system.

Benton County, Washington constructed its first comprehensive behavioral health and recovery center, representing the smaller end of the implementation spectrum with a county of 200,000 people.

Anchorage, Alaska opened an $11 million facility serving the state’s largest city.

Geographic and Access Gaps

Despite expansion, significant gaps remain.

Rural coverage is a documented gap. West Texas Mental Health Center’s facility in San Angelo covers seven counties. SAMHSA’s 2025 National Guidelines identify transportation barriers as a specific challenge for rural crisis access.

Overnight and weekend coverage is inconsistently implemented even within cities. The 40-state presence figure describes facility existence, not uniform 24/7 clinical capacity. SAMHSA’s 2025 National Guidelines specifically identify 24/7 availability as a design standard that not all programs meet.

Youth-specific capacity is concentrated in a small number of dedicated facilities. Most documented adult centers were designed for adults and serve youth only under specific conditions or with limited pediatric psychiatric capacity; the specialized design decisions required for safe youth-specific care are not uniformly present.

Bottom Line

Crisis stabilization centers exist in more than 40 states, with the densest implementations in Arizona, Ohio, Virginia, and Georgia. The landscape ranges from Arizona’s 30-year statewide system to counties building their first single facility. SAMHSA’s 2025 National Guidelines identify rural coverage and 24/7 staffing as the two gaps most consistently present in the current national footprint.

Multiple centers in this review explicitly identified ARPA funding as their construction source, including Atlanta ($15 million ARPA) and Franklin County Columbus ($60 million ARPA-supported). Arizona’s system, by contrast, has operated as a Medicaid-financed system for over 30 years — a design that does not depend on ARPA sustainability.

Arizona and Ohio are the most fully documented statewide implementations. Juneau, Fort Collins, and the three-county Pennsylvania collaboration are documented examples of rural and small-county implementations.