A new emergency mental health center is one step closer to opening

A new crisis center for people in need of emergency mental health care is a step closer to opening after a key funding source was put in place.

The Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS), the public agency that oversees mental health in Cuyahoga County, on Wednesday approved $4.5 million from its budget for next year’s facility operations.

The investment consumes a significant portion of the board’s annual budget, but ADAHMS officials deemed the financial commitment necessary to open the new facility. The crisis center, recently named the Glick Recovery Campus, is already under renovation in the central neighborhood and is scheduled to open in September.

“For residents, the agreement is to create an accessible and coordinated crisis response system,” ADAMHS Executive Director Jason Joyce said at Wednesday’s meeting. “The goal is to provide a central point of access for behavioral health crises while reducing unnecessary reliance on emergency departments and law enforcement.”

Joyce, who joined the board about five months ago, previously questioned whether the agency could afford it, leaving the center’s future in doubt. Before he arrived, the board had pledged to spend $10 million a year on the crisis center, but Joyce said such a big commitment would force the board to cut back on the support it provides for mental health and addictions in the community.

Under the agreement approved Wednesday night, the ADAMHS board will pay $4.5 million toward the new crisis center in 2027. Joyce predicts the board will still need to make cuts to other service providers but now expects them to be smaller.

The commitment of $4.5 million — instead of $10 million — to the new crisis center was cited as a key reason board members approved it.

“$10 million a year was taking too much away from other programs, which would not have been good,” said ADAMHS Board Vice President James Dixon. James Dixon, sponsor of the new funding agreement for the center, said.

Uncertainty remains about the funding and diversion center

Uncertainty remains surrounding a separate piece of funding for the new crisis center: opioid settlement dollars from Cuyahoga County. The money is needed to cover about 20% of the crisis center’s annual operations, but the county council has not yet voted to approve its use.

The county’s opioid settlement dollars currently fund the Community Diversion Center, a facility on East 55th Street set to open in 2021 as a place where police can drop off people experiencing a mental health or addiction crisis. This was later expanded to help people from other agencies or who had moved in. The diversion center will close after dollars are transferred to the new crisis center, county leaders previously said.

Diversion center leaders have expressed concern, however, that closing the diversion center would mean a net loss of residential beds for people with mental health crises who need services for days at a time. The new crisis center will have some inpatient beds, but few. Instead, it will add more short-term stays, where residents can stay for up to 23 hours to receive medication and treatment.

“It is unrealistic to assume that additional ‘chairs’ providing 23-hour supervision will meet the complex needs of individuals who are experiencing mental health and substance use crises,” wrote Dr. Megan Testa, medical director at the Diversion Center and Frontline Service, in an email to the ADAMHS board before Wednesday’s vote.

What the new crisis center offers

For years, Cuyahoga County, local agencies and mental health advocates have been looking for more effective alternatives to help people in mental health crises, which often end up in jail or emergency rooms.

County officials paid for the diversion center, while the ADAMHS board funded a crisis unit and psychiatric emergency department on the city’s west side. The new mental health crisis center is likely to take funding away from all three of these facilities. (The psychiatric emergency department was closed at the end of last year following announcements about proposed funding changes.)

ADAMHS board member Dr. Charles Garvin described the new crisis center as a better deal — providing more services for the same investment.

The new crisis center will have a first floor with 40 crisis receiving seats, which are essentially respite areas where patients can receive medication and services for up to 23 hours. The second floor will have residential beds where patients can stay for days at a time, if needed, and beds for detox use. The third floor will have outpatient primary care and mental health care.