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When will Alamance County open its 24-hour mental health diversion center?

Times-News - 1/19/2022

Jan. 19—A place for law enforcement to take people in mental-health crisis day or night has been an Alamance County priority for six years or more. The scale of the hoped-for diversion center has grown, but it is still just an idea.

"There are a lot of good people that are trying," said Art Springer, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham counties. "It's very much appreciated but for some reason, we don't have it, and it's very, very frustrating that we don't have it."

It is called a diversion center. Sometimes people committing nonviolent crimes like trespassing need a psychiatrist or social worker or even extended care, but it's a lot easier to get a bed in jail than a psychiatric hospital.

Alamance County Mental Health use to care for those people, but mental health care reform changed all that more than a decade ago. The idea was to make care more consistent from county to county. One of the results, however, is an array of private-sector providers giving mental-health and addiction treatment, which works, but is more complicated to find.

The plan for the diversion center had been fairly modest. A 24-hour center where law enforcement officers could bring non-violent offenders who might otherwise end up in jail or the emergency department with a few beds for serious cases and staff who could connect them to the treatment and services they need.

With millions in COVID relief coming and a new managed care organization working in Alamance County, the proposal became more ambitious with a larger facility possibly near Alamance Regional Medical Center, as many as 16 beds and office space for service providers so clients can get treatment and then help with housing, jobs and government benefits.

"That way we're not just sending them out of the facility saying 'good luck,'" said Donald Reuss vice president for community relations with Vaya Health, now the mental health authority for Alamance and 30 other North Carolina counties.

The estimated budget also went from $1.2 million to $13.5 million. While the county commissioners support the diversion center, some have balked at the price even if most of it isn't coming from local funds.

Last spring, 37%, or about 100 people­­­­, held in the Alamance County Detention Center on an average day had mental-health issues, according to sheriff's office statistics. There is nobody, least of all Sheriff Terry Johnson, saying that's where they should be. Not only do these people not get treatment, but it also crowds the jail, which at an estimated $79 per day, costs the county a lot of money.

"The worst place for a person in a mental health crisis to be is the jail," said Bob Byrd, former county commissioner and an early advocate for a diversion center. "And the sheriff will tell you it's a hard population to manage."

Byrd was an early leader in the Alamance County Stepping Up Initiative aimed at getting better law enforcement results for people with mental illnesses and addictions. The diversion center was its first priority but the program has had more tangible results training officers how best to deal with people in crisis.

The current diversion center near Holly Hill Mall and Business Center helped more than 500 people last year, according to data it shared with the county commissioners. In 2019 it had just 379 clients. That big increase came after it expanded its hours in 2020.

The center, run by RHA Health Services, is now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and has plans to expand hours again to midnight, according to County Manager Bryan Hagood. Springer said a 24-hour center would make a big difference. For one thing, there would be beds there for anyone who could not be placed in treatment immediately. Several county commissioners also say a center with more services could save lives.

Local developer Chad Porterfield is building on nine acres by ARMC and negotiating with the county to make it the site for the diversion center, which he says could be finished this year. Price is still a sticking point, but Hagood says the diversion center is still a top county priority.

Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.

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