Yahoo Autos What is Ulster County's Crisis Stabilization Center and how it can help residents
In the not too distant future, Ulster County will offer a place where residents experiencing trouble with mental health or substance abuse can go any time of the day or night and get immediate help.
It's called the Crisis Stabilization Center, and it will be staffed with counselors, addiction professionals and other specialists who can help anyone who walks through their doors with whatever crisis they are experiencing.
"We've seen a spike in overdoses in recent years, we've seen a spike in suicides," Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan said."We have understaffed, and underfunded, and undervalued mental health resources in this county for over a decade."
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The center will be an important step toward turning that around, he said.
"This will be a place where people can get not just services but care for those problems," Ryan said.
The center will be in the heart of Kingston, in a building that, until now, has been known as the Kingston Medical Arts Building, at 368 Broadway. Ulster County is buying the 31-year-old building, adjacent to the Broadway campus of the HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hospital, for $2 million.
That money is coming from the American Rescue Plan funds the county was awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The county Legislature recently authorized the purchase and Ryan signed the resolution authorizing the spending Tuesday.
The facility follows the Dutchess County Stabilization Center, a similar 24-hour facility in Poughkeepsie, which opened in 2017 and has since been cited as a model for others around the state.
The Mid Hudson Valley has been at the center of a surge in Opioid overdose deaths in recent years. Ulster saw 55 such deaths in 2020, up from 33 in 2019, according to state Department of Health statistics. The county had 35 through the first nine months of 2021, the most recent data shared by the state.
"This is a really big moment, and a significant sign of our values as a community" Ryan said. "We're going to bring this building back to life. All it needs is some TLC."
Ryan said that tender loving care will cost about another million dollars. That money has not been approved yet by the legislature, and it was unclear exactly what budget line it will come from, but Ryan doesn't think it will have any trouble going through.
Also unclear was exactly when the center will be up and running. A closing date still has to be set. And while the county likely will begin moving in later this year, Ryan and newly-installed Mental Health Commissioner Tara McDonald both seemed certain it will be sometime next year before the center is fully operational.
"We're starting with a blank slate," McDonald said..
What will be in the center?
Most of the current tenants are expected to move out, including some doctors who are retiring.
But at least one or two will remain, including Access: Supports for Living, a Middletown-based agency which has one of its regional walk-in urgent care centers for mental health and addiction in one of the suites.
Ron Colavito, president and CEO of Access, praised the county plan.
“I commend Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan for working to establish a continuum of mental health and substance use services for Ulster County residents to, first, prevent a crisis from occurring, but if it does, ensure that resources are in place to provide support and prevent unnecessary hospitalization or emergency department use," Colavito said. "Access is proud to be part of that continuum."
In addition to the stabilization center on one floor, the other suites will be occupied by other agencies that address mental health and substance abuse.
The building will also serve as the permanent headquarters of McDonald's department.
None of the suites will be equipped for occupancy.
"This is all going to be done on an outpatient basis," McDonald said. "There will not be any in-patients."
Prioritizing mental health
The need for a stabilization center was a top recommendation in a report issued last year by the county's Behavioral Health Task Force. McDonald, who had been the county's deputy commissioner of health and mental health since 2017, chaired that group.
Even before the pandemic, the county's mental health clinics and addiction centers often were at full capacity. That stress was only increased during the past two years.
This year, Ryan and the county are taking steps to reverse course: re-establishing the Department of Mental Health as a fully functioning department, appointing McDonald as its commissioner and, soon, opening the Crisis Stabilization Center.
"We're going to do some great things for our residents here," McDonald said.
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Ulster County to open Crisis Stabilization Center for residents
