Alabama Crisis System of Care

No individual is immune from the impact of untreated behavioral health needs. Each year, there are thousands of preventable tragedies that may be addressed with proper mental health resources and access to care. To offer innovative and accessible solutions, the Alabama Crisis System of Care:

• Expands access to care and offers the right care, at the right time, at the right place
• Includes 988, Mobile Crisis Teams, and Crisis Centers
• Assists individuals before a civil commitment may occur
• Reduces the number of arrests
• Decreases frequency of admissions to hospitals
• Provides connections and referrals to agencies and organizations Assists individuals in crisis to achieve stability
• Promotes sustained recovery
• Includes someone to talk to, someone to come to you, and someplace to go
• Creates opportunities for the behavioral health workforce

Gov. Kay Ivey, the Alabama State Legislature, and the Alabama Department of Mental Health have funded six Crisis Centers that offer services at staged levels. These centers improve access to behavioral healthcare services for individuals who are experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis, and they aid jails and hospitals throughout the state by alleviating the burden to house and care for individuals in need of services.

ADMH thanks Governor Ivey and legislative investment, which helps to expand and transform the Alabama crisis system of care, dramatically lower healthcare costs, reinvest state dollars, achieve better health outcomes, and improve life for those with acute mental health needs.

Crisis Centers in Alabama are individualized to the unique needs of the communities they serve.

• AltaPointe Health: The Behavioral Health Crisis Center is located in Mobile County and serves Baldwin, Washington, Clark, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe Counties. The phone number for AltaPointe Behavioral Health Crisis Center is 251-450-2211. 
• Carastar Health (formerly MAMHA): This center is in Montgomery, but serves the entire River Region, and the counties of Chambers, Lee, Russell, and Tallapoosa, in partnership with the community mental health centers of East Alabama and East Central Alabama. Mobile Crisis Services are in operation, in conjunction with law enforcement and first responder partnerships. The phone number for the Carastar Health Crisis Center is 1-800-408-4197.
• WellStone: The WellStone Emergency Services Crisis Center is located in Huntsville serving Cullman and Madison counties, and the surrounding counties of Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker, Winston, Lawrence, Limestone, Morgan, Jackson, Marshall, Cherokee, Dekalb, and Etowah.  Mobile Crisis Services are in operation, in conjunction with law enforcement and first responder partnerships. The phone number for WellStone Emergency Services Crisis Center is 256-705-6444. 
• Jefferson, Blount, St. Clair Behavioral Services: The Richard Craig Crisis Care Center will serve the named counties, in addition to surrounding counties. The phone number for JBS Craig Crisis Care Center is 205-263-1701. 
• Indian Rivers Behavioral Health: The center will be located in Tuscaloosa County and will serve the following counties:  Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Pickens, Perry, Dallas, Wilcox, Hale, Sumter, Greene, Marengo, and Choctaw.  The Hope Pointe Behavioral Health Crisis Center is scheduled to begin providing services in June 2023 at a temporary location. Contact information will be shared soon including the address, phone number, and website.
• SpectraCare Health Systems: The center will be located in Dothan and plans to open in Fall 2023. More information on counties served and contact information for the Crisis Center will be posted when designated.

In addition to creating Crisis Centers, the Alabama Crisis System of Care includes the implementation of 988 and mobile crisis services throughout the state.

The purpose of the 988 Comprehensive Behavioral Health Crisis Communication System Commission (typically called the 988 commission), created by Act 2021-359, is to study and provide recommendations for the implementation of the 988 system to enhance and expand behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention services before it is nationally implemented on July 16, 2022, as required by Public Law No: 116-172. Click here to read the report by the 988 Commission.

In Fiscal Year 2021, five community mental health centers (CMHC) across the state received funding to increase their rural and mobile crisis care services:

• Cahaba Center for Mental Health
• Northwest Alabama Mental Health Center
• Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems
• WellStone Behavioral Health (Cullman)
• West Alabama Mental Health Center

Also, two additional CMHC's were awarded funds in FY21 through federal ARPA and Block Grant awards:

• South Central Mental Health Center
• Spectracare Health

The goals for mobile crisis services are aligned with the overarching goals of crisis care, which are to reduce the burden on EDs/Hospitals, reduce the burden on Law Enforcement/Jails, and improve access for the “right care, right time, right place.” Each center will have a mobile crisis team as part of mobile crisis services. The community mental health centers may also include in their crisis services: a co-response with law enforcement and emergency medical personnel, crisis peer support, crisis case management, regional call centers, and respite options.

Another element to the success of the Alabama Crisis System of Care is the Stepping Up Alabama Initiative, an integral part of mental health care. Stepping Up is a national initiative designed to reduce the number of people who have mental illnesses in jails and hospital emergency departments. To learn more about Stepping Up Alabama, its components, and its progress, please visit Stepping Up Alabama.