ADAMH CEO: Crisis center will be alternative to 911 in mental health emergency
City of Columbus leaders should be applauded for increasing their investment in an alternative response for mental health and addiction-related 911 calls, which was recently covered in the Columbus Dispatch.
More:Columbus council, residents want more mental-health professionals, not police, on 911 calls
What we see in our community is that mental health crisis episodes are medical emergencies, but most often not public safety emergencies. It is important to triage calls at the point of entry – which, for most in our community is currently a call to 911.
The right deployment of public safety resources is just one piece of a much larger continuum of crisis care.
This continuum includes a place to call, clinicians and peers to come when needed and somewhere to go for emergency care and linkage to services.
That is the focus of the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH) and its network of more than 30 community-based mental health and addiction service providers.
As a levy-funded county agency, ADAMH is the behavioral health safety net for the community, investing more than $85 million annually in comprehensive mental health and addiction services and supports.
More:More than $44 million raised for Franklin County mental health and addiction facility
The ADAMH network is enhancing the crisis care continuum to meet people where they are, with the most appropriate response for an individual’s situation and to ensure better care and timely access for all.
Public safety plays a role and is an important part of the solution.
Yet a behavioral health response does not need to involve EMS or police first responders when there is no life-threatening medical emergency or imminent threat of violence.
A best-practice approach to crisis response starts with a crisis call center as the initial point of access.
We are planning to enhance our community’s existing crisis call center infrastructure, including how to dovetail with 911 and plan for this summer’s statewide 988 rollout for mental health and suicide prevention calls in partnership with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
More:Diverting some 911 calls to civilian responders works, experts tell Columbus City Council
Other priorities include expanding the continuum of community-based mobile crisis response to include civilian response teams and informing the public safety model in collaboration with Columbus police and fire and the Franklin County Sheriff’s office.
The cornerstone of the crisis care continuum is the new crisis center, which is being developed as the central and preferred destination in Franklin County for mental health and addiction crisis needs.
More:More than $44 million raised for Franklin County mental health and addiction facility
This crisis center, which will break ground in mid-2022, will offer a no-wrong-door approach to ensure anyone who arrives at the center receives services.
It will benefit everyone from individuals in crisis and their families to the overcrowded hospitals and first responders currently stretched to their limits.
The ADAMH network’s broad base of community behavioral health expertise, resources and infrastructure allows us to build a crisis care continuum uniquely designed to meet the needs of this community.
This is an opportunity to build a sustainable partnership where residents, first responders and behavioral health practitioners respond appropriately and safely for the individual in crisis and create a healthier community for all.
Many organizations play important roles in finding ways to better serve the community and we look forward to collaborating to continue to find new solutions to better care for those most in need.
Erika Clark Jones is CEO of the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH).