ECMH building new crisis diversion center

Nearly a year after announcing a crisis diversion center in Troy, East Central Mental Health Center has finally cut through the red tape and began site work for the center.

ECMH Executive Director Don Schofield announced plans to build the crisis diversion center on its property at 200 East Cherry Street last November. However, local residents opposed the center and Scofield said the Troy Zoning Board would not rezone the property for the center.

Scofield said ECMH was able to obtain a lot at the corner of Franklin Drive and Hospital Road. He said currently, work is being done on the site to fill in a large hole, which will require about 15,000 tons of dirt to be trucked in. Scofield said the site preparation would take six to eight weeks. After that, Scofield said the foundation would be laid for the 4,000-square-foot building. Once the foundation is set, he said it would take 12 to 18 months to complete construction on the facility.

Scofield said the original plans called for just a crisis diversion center. But, the new building will have ECMH’s adult outpatient substance abuse service on one end and urgent care and the crisis diversion center on the other end.

“We’re planning to build a crisis diversion center to assess and stabilize patients,” Schofield said. “They’ll be at the house no longer than 24 hours. If they’re not stable at 23 hours, we’ll transport them to a facility capable of performing the next appropriate level of care.”

Scofield said if patients are not able to be stabilized and back on their medication in 23-hours, they will be moved to a crisis diversion center in Montgomery for care. He said ECMH has an agreement in place with a center in Montgomery.

Schofield said the planned crisis diversion center would not be a large operation and will be capable of serving about three to four people. He said the center would be staffed 24-hours a day with all necessary professional personnel. He said they may also offer peer counseling because peers sometimes have better luck connecting with people in crisis because they have gone through similar experiences.

Schofield said in his experience, people in crisis could usually be stabilized within the 23-hour window by getting the patient back on medication. He said if the patient isn’t stabilized within the 23-hour window, they would be transported to another facility for additional care.

Schofield also said ECMH has a crisis mobile team that went out into the community to assist people in need. He said the crisis center would help bring all of those services together under one roof.

ECMH building new crisis diversion center

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