GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kent County's Behavioral Health Crisis Center is celebrating two years and thousands of people helped.
WATCH: Grand Rapids behavioral health crisis center celebrates two-year milestone
The Behavioral Health Crisis Center is home to the state's first crisis stabilization unit (CSU). Since opening in May of 2024, the crisis center has had 10,213 walk-ins receive brief interventions, and 4,650 patients have been admitted to the CSU.
Walk-ins are provided intervention by a nurse and mental health clinician, who assess the appropriate level of care. Patients admitted to the crisis stabilization unit can be admitted for up to 72 hours.
The Director of the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, Mandy Matthews, said the center functions like an emergency room for people experiencing a mental health crisis or issues with substance abuse.
"[We] divert individuals that are in crisis from our local emergency departments, as well as jail. So, we become a place to go where individuals can come in and receive treatment immediately," Matthews said.
Matthews said the center has been a major benefit in two areas: ensuring people receive proper care and freeing up emergency departments and law enforcement.
"We are able to take those individuals from law enforcement. They'll bring them straight here to us instead of going to the emergency department, where they have to wait about an hour. And law enforcement is then tied up. They know they can come here, and on average, law enforcement is able to leave within five minutes," Matthews said.
Christy Buck, executive director of the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan, said she has seen a rise in people needing mental health assistance and that the center has been a major resource for her organization.
"We finally have a center that will treat people the way they need to be treated," Buck said.
Buck said the center gives her a place to turn when she encounters someone in crisis.
"I might find myself in a place where I am in a crisis situation, and someone is concerning to me. Whatever I'm seeing, it gives me a place to call where I know we can get someone to help," Buck said.
The Behavioral Health Crisis Center in downtown Grand Rapids is now one of three in the state, providing what Buck calls the right care in the right place.
"The sooner they get help and treatment, the sooner they're going to feel better. And I feel there's hope for the future because of that center, that people got help earlier in a journey rather than later," Buck said.
Click here to learn more about the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan
