County opens center for people with mental health issues and in trouble with the law – LevittownNow.com

Bucks County officials recently cut the ribbon to open a new Diversion, Assessment, Rehabilitation and Treatment (DART) center.

The DART center in Doylestown Township, which serves the entire county, is designed to help people with serious mental illnesses get out of jail and into facilities that will treat them properly instead.

Within the DART center, three separate pathways have been created to help adults with mental illness, officials said.

The community integration pathway provides a place for those who need treatment and assistance in developing daily living skills. This route, which can accommodate up to 16 people, encourages residents to develop an independent way of life in their community.

Meanwhile, the Short-Term Assessment and Stabilization Pathway provides a transitional assessment and referral process for those seeking short-term care. This program can serve up to eight people at a time.

Finally, the Rehabilitation of Competency Unit is designed for individuals in the criminal justice system who have been determined incompetent to stand trial. This unit can serve up to four people.

The 23,000 square foot facility also includes an industrial kitchen.

The ServSafe kitchen will be used to allow residents to earn ServSafe certification once they complete the community integration program, officials said.

In total, the DART Center’s three programs can serve up to 28 people at a time.

According to Bucks County Chief Operating Officer Margaret McKevitt, the DART facility has received full licensing approval from state regulators.

The center is the result of a 10-year review that began in 2016 when the state’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board updated its examination of where individuals with serious mental illness and the criminal justice system are integrated.

The construction and opening of this center has faced various challenges in the past ten years.

Although construction of the DART Center, which began in October 2023, within the framework of the former Women’s Community Correctional Center, pandemic workforce problems and other issues have resulted in several challenges.

The decision to demolish the former correctional center instead of renovating the current building also changed the project’s game plan.

Bucks County Commissioner Deputy Chairman Bob Harvey, a Democrat, talked about the decade-long project and how commissioners visited the women’s correctional facility six years ago, leaving them wondering how the county could make better use of the unused property.

“What can we do here to make a difference?” Harvey said. “What can we do in this space that makes sense for people who really, really need help at a time that might be the lowest in their lives, and serves a purpose, and helps law enforcement and the criminal justice system properly handle people who shouldn’t be in jail but end up there because there’s nowhere else to go?”

In total, the DART Center cost $19.8 million to build.

The project was funded through federal and state funds. About $1.8 million came from Bucks County’s general fund, while additional funding also came through the American Rescue Plan Act and the federal government, officials said.

The DART facility will serve both Bucks County and Montgomery County.

Montgomery County, which will share beds in the Community Integration Pathway, will receive ongoing funding from Magellan Behavioral Health.

Bucks County Commissioner Chairman Diane Ellis Marsiglia, a Democrat, attended the DART center’s opening ceremony and spoke about how the new facility can divert people from the criminal justice system and into a center that can properly help them treat their serious mental illness.

“We wanted to do something about this problem to divert people from the criminal justice system,” Alice Marsiglia explained. “But one piece of the puzzle was missing, and this is this piece. This is a place where anyone with serious mental illness can come and be transported, evaluated, rehabilitated, and treated.”

Alice Marsiglia, a social worker, also noted how many people have suffered from mental illness because of the lack of adequate mental health resources seen over the decades – especially after the local mental health system was dismantled in the 1980s.

“Many people shouldered the burden of a poor quality mental health system, only to have it dismantled in the 1980s and replaced with nothing,” said Alice Marsiglia. “That’s why prisons have been the de facto treatment for people with serious mental illness for four decades.”

Bucks County has been calling for a solution to this problem for a long time.

By 2025 alone, individuals with serious mental illness will spend 50% more time in Bucks County Correctional Facilities than individuals in the general population.

According to Donna Duffy Grimm, manager of Bucks County Behavioral Health/Developmental Programs, the DART Center addresses this disparity in the criminal justice system.

“We really hope to make an impact on those statistics,” Grimm said.

Harvey also reflected on the problem of how many correctional facilities had mental health facilities simply because there was no other way for the country to help the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.

“If you have someone who’s been arrested by the police because they’ve gotten themselves into trouble and they’re going through some kind of mental illness challenge, they’re going to go to jail,” Harvey explained. “And a prison is not a mental health care facility.”

With the opening of the DART center, county officials hope to see a real shift in where the criminal justice system and mental health intersect.

“Today marks an important milestone for Bucks County because we’re not simply opening a building,” General Services Director Bernard Griggs said. “We’re paving the way for a more compassionate, effective approach to mental health and criminal justice.”

The opening of the DART center is the latest in Bucks County’s programs to help those in the criminal justice system with serious mental illness.

In 2020, the Human Services Collaborative Responders program was launched, bringing together social workers and the Bensalem Police Department. The program replaces social workers with police officers when dealing with individuals who need social services, rather than incarceration. Six years after its inception, the program has expanded to more than two dozen police departments across the country.

Bucks County also has several special court programs to better serve the community, including Rehabilitation Court, Wellness Court, and Veterans Treatment Court.

The GEO Group will manage day-to-day operations at the DART center, while the Bucks County Department of Behavioral Health/Developmental Programs will oversee the center.

Dr. Matthew Abraham, Senior Director of Therapeutics and Program Development for the GEO Group, attended the center’s opening and discussed DART’s mission.

“Now, there’s one person, maybe more than one, who doesn’t even know the DART center exists,” Abraham said. “They’re stuck in a cell somewhere, trying to get through another day of being told they’re too complicated to help. That person will find their way in here. And when they do, they’ll walk through a door that says, ‘We see you. You’re worth it all.'”