October 2021 Group Watch: Gov Announces Birmingham-Area Crisis Center
Governor Kay Ivey recently announced that the Jefferson, Blount, St. Clair (JBS) Mental Health Authority in Birmingham will be the home to the state’s fourth crisis center. The addition to the Alabama Crisis System of Care will join AltaPointe Health in Mobile, Wellstone in Huntsville and the Montgomery Area Mental Health Authority in Montgomery in providing crucial mental health services to the citizenry. The state’s first three crisis centers were awarded funding in October 2020 and have been operational since May 2021. Crisis centers were established to serve individuals suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. Crisis centers are a designated place for community members, law enforcement and first responders to take an individual who is in a mental health crisis. Crisis centers offer both walk-in access and the capacity for first responders and law enforcement to transfer individuals to the center for a warm hand-off to crisis center staff, short-term admission, medication management and case management.
