The 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
  • Assists individuals before a civil commitment may occur
  • Reduces the number of arrests
  • Decreases frequency of admissions to hospitals
  • Includes someone to talk to, someone to come to you, and someplace to go
  • Offers the right care, at the right time, at the right place
  • Assists individuals in crisis to achieve stability
  • Promotes sustained recovery
  • Provides connections and referrals to agencies and organizations
  • Includes 988, Mobile Crisis Teams, and Crisis Centers
  • Maximizes 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, 988 and Mobile Crisis Care

As part of the first major investment in state mental health services since Governor Lurleen Wallace’s administration, Governor Ivey has prioritized establishing a mental health crisis continuum of care, with efforts in the Alabama Legislature led by House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter.

This continuum of care, called the Alabama Crisis System of Care includes Crisis Centers. These centers are designated places for communities, law enforcement, first responders, and hospitals to take an individual who is in a mental health or substance abuse crisis.  At the center, the individual could receive stabilization, evaluation, and psychiatric services. https://mh.alabama.gov/crisis-centers/

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

988 is the national three-digit phone number for all mental health, substance use, and suicide crises, as of July 16, 2022.

With 988, Alabama integrates and aligns the state’s crisis system design and service delivery – linking individuals directly to critical services: someone to call, someone to respond, and somewhere to go. https://mh.alabama.gov/988-2/

In order to actively change the model of care and respond to this vital need, the Alabama Department of Mental Health has expanded the Alabama Crisis System of Care to include Mobile Crisis Teams (MCT).

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.  https://mh.alabama.gov/rural-crisis-care-programs/

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.