Crisis CARE Center
Alabama’s Region II Crisis Care Center is a temporary place for individuals, 19 or older, who are actively experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Crisis Care Centers provide a stronger continuum of care in the mental health community, establishing an essential link between those who need care and the organizations that provide care. As a dedicated place for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, this facility provides rapid stabilization and helps connect individuals with the inpatient or outpatient care they need.

The Center will give our deputies and other law enforcement personnel the opportunity to take an individual in mental health or drug addiction crisis into a healthcare facility rather than jail. The Center will have the added benefit of getting law enforcement personnel back on patrol much faster, as such Centers typically average 15 to 20 minutes of officer time. The Center will allow those dealing with a mental health crisis to get access to treatment far faster.

JBS hopes to have the Center up and running by November 2022. We have already begun providing training to all of our deputies to ensure that they are prepared to effectively respond to situations involving a mental health or addiction crisis. Deputies will also be able to identify individuals who should be brought to the Center. We will also offer Crisis Intervention Training to other law enforcement agencies throughout Jefferson County and beyond. In addition, part of this grant will be used to equip our patrol cars with telehealth equipment, so our deputies can consult with mental health professionals at the Center before making an arrest.

Updates:

• The Executive Director of the Center has been hired. Her name is Dr. Sabrina Scott, and she is coming here from Cobb County, Georgia. She has run the Center there for the last 5 years.
• We expect that as many as 150 individuals each month will be diverted from the Jefferson County Jails to the Crisis CARE Center.
• Social workers at the Center will follow each individual who visits the Center. The social worker assigned to each individual will follow their case for at least 90 days after discharge.
• Crisis Intervention Training for over 400 deputies has commence at the Sheriff’s Training Academy. We intent to have all patrol and jail deputies trained in Crisis Intervention by the end of September. The class is a 16-hour (2 day) class that teaches the basics of mental health and crisis intervention.