Crisis Solutions North Carolina
Featured Community Solutions
February 9, 2015 — DMH/DD/SAS has awarded funding to four projects to enhance crisis services as part of the NC Crisis Solutions Initiative. Each project will receive $998,458 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and $998,458 for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The funding is a combination of federal block grants and state appropriations.
Smoky Mountain Center, with RHA Behavioral Health, will develop a 24-hour Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center to serve adults and children, and a co-located 16-bed crisis unit for adults. An array of outpatient services and other community supports will also be provided in a comprehensive care center in Asheville.
CenterPoint Human Services, with Monarch, will develop a 24-hour Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center for adults and children, and a co-located 16-bed crisis unit for adults in Winston-Salem.
Eastpointe, with Monarch, will renovate and expand an existing 11-bed facility – adding five beds while increasing safety and security measures for adults, and develop a co-located Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center in Lumberton.
Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, with Monarch, will develop the state’s first 16-bed crisis facility for children and adolescents in Charlotte.
“We expect each project will reduce over-dependence on emergency departments for psychiatric care and decrease unnecessary inpatient care for individuals in a behavioral health crisis,” said Courtney Cantrell, director of DMH/DD/SAS. “This also helps ensure individuals receive the treatment they need in a timely manner.”
Does your community have a new program, a promising strategy, or an upcoming event that will help individuals and families prevent a crisis and avoid the need for emergency assistance?
The Crisis Solutions Initiative wants to highlight your solutions here.
Contact us through the email link on this site or by calling the Crisis Solutions Initiative project manager at 919-715-1294.
Local Community Solutions
When an individual is in a behavioral health crisis, multiple community systems are often involved. For example, a family member may have called “911,” and paramedics or police responded. Or perhaps the person was unable to connect with their usual provider and a mobile crisis team came to see him. Or maybe, school personnel transported a youth to an emergency department for an evaluation. These possibilities and many others can push the individual and family into a confusing whirlwind of multiple systems with conflicting rules.
Solutions to the issues within the crisis services continuum will need to be built by all the partners involved. Communities will need to value the involvement of law enforcement and magistrates, schools, healthcare providers, paramedics, emergency departments, community health centers, advocacy groups, and others.
Many communities find it helpful to “map” their resources. This helps everyone to understand what each brings to the continuum of crisis care. It also helps partners find solutions to gaps in the continuum.
This diagram has been useful for some communities. Try using it with your local “Crisis Solutions Coalition” to determine what your continuum of crisis prevention, intervention, response, and stabilization looks like.
Mapping your community’s crisis continuum — tools for community use.
Helpful links:
- Mayors’ Resource Guide on Behavioral Health
- Community Conversations about Mental Health
- Core Elements for Responding to Mental Health Crises
- The NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services has a number of reports available about crisis services in North Carolina
The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has other free resources available to help communities start conversations about behavioral health and to guide the development of a good crisis intervention continuum. You may want to start with these.
