The center will offer intervention and resources for people with mental health issues and substance use disorders who are in crisis when it opens in 2025. It also will help divert people who need behavioral health services away from the criminal justice system.
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“No one should go to jail simply because there aren’t better options available,” Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Chair Jamila H. Winder said in a statement. “The new crisis center will help those individuals experiencing mental health crises receive appropriate care instead of being incarcerated. It will give our police departments, law enforcement officers, EMTs, and emergency room hospitals a place to divert people in crisis, where they can receive treatment from staff who are living examples of recovery and mental wellness.”
The center is a response to an increase in calls to police and to the county’s mobile crisis team for mental health emergencies, drug overdoses and related issues. The mobile crisis team currently responds with police to psychiatric emergencies. The team received 5,500 new calls in 2023.
- IF YOU NEED HELP
- Call 311 to reach the Montgomery County Mobile Crisis Team. Call or text 988 to reach the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The 988 national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline received 5,435 calls from Montgomery County residents last year. The Montgomery County Department of Public Safety’s Emergency Communications Center also receives dozens of 911 calls from people with behavioral health crises.
Montgomery County residents of any age will be able to walk into the new center or may be referred by Montgomery County’s mobile crisis team. Police, fire and ambulance services also will drop off people who are experiencing behavioral health crises at the center.
Connections Health Solutions, based in Phoenix, will provide services at the center. The company specializes in behavioral health crisis services around the country, including other parts of Pennsylvania.