ADAMHS Board, MetroHealth and St. Vincent Charity Partner to Open Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood

Crisis Center Logos

The Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services has approved a capital grant of more than $6.8 million to a collaborative consisting of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County, The MetroHealth System and St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center for the development of a Crisis Center that will sustain and expand behavioral health crisis care in Cuyahoga County.

This investment by the state should greatly enhance our community’s ability to address the human tolls that arise from untreated mental health issues, including the current epidemic of drug overdose deaths. Making it easier for people to get the mental health and addiction care they need when they most need it will strengthen neighborhoods and support families throughout Cuyahoga County.

The new funding will be used to renovate facilities at the St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood that will be the site for the Crisis Center that will include crisis intake and receiving, psychiatric emergency services and a crisis stabilization unit.

When it opens in the fall of 2024, MetroHealth System caregivers will run this new, comprehensive 24/7 Crisis Center and provide a comprehensive offering of care delivery and wraparound services, which is an extension of the full continuum available throughout the health system. The ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County will provide oversight of the capital project and funding for the operations of the Crisis Center. St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center will serve as landlord and collaborator in providing community-based services.

In applying for the grant, the ADAMHS Board highlighted that the new center will “provide individuals with enhanced access to a visible crisis continuum of services and supports that are person-centered, quality driven, and focused on ensuring people are stabilized and thriving in the community.” The intake center will use a “living room” model of care designed to serve a wide range of acuity levels in a supportive and reassuring manner. In addition, the emergency services unit will offer acute assessment and treatment of individuals with severe behavioral health concerns either self-referred or brought in by police.  The crisis stabilization unit will have 16 beds for individuals who require additional time for placement or linkage to community services.

“We think this is an exciting model that will add to the continuum of behavioral health care in our community using accepted best practices and will help each patient receive needed and deserved  services,” said Scott S. Osiecki, Chief Executive Officer of the ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County. “We are also pleased to partner with MetroHealth and St. Vincent Charity, two of our community’s oldest health care providers, to carry out this vision.”

“This collaboration to expand crisis receiving, stabilization and emergency services will continue a long tradition of care in the heart of Cleveland as part of our St. Vincent Charity campus,” said Janice G. Murphy, MSN, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sisters of Charity Health System. “In addition to this and many community partnerships, St. Vincent Charity remains committed to providing outpatient mental health care, addiction services through Rosary Hall, community-based case management and wrap-around services through our newly implemented crisis and recovery services program.”

“Mental health and addiction issues are ravaging our communities and our families, and this Crisis Center will greatly expand our collective ability to ease that pain because it will enhance our existing array of services and do so at a centralized location that’s convenient to our Main Campus at MetroHealth in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood and our Behavioral Health Hospital in Cleveland Heights,” said Airica Steed, Ed.D, RN, MBA, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer of The MetroHealth System. “This responsibility fits perfectly with our mission as Cuyahoga County’s super safety-net health system. We are eager to partner with the ADAMHS Board and St. Vincent Charity to bring this innovative and transformative model to Cleveland. Together we will treat the total health of everyone, including the invisible wounds that steal the joy and life from our communities.”

Besides supporting the renovations, the state grant will also help pay for technology upgrades, equipment and furniture and initial staff recruiting, onboarding and training at the new crisis center.