NCDHHS announces $22M investment to expand community crisis center, peer respite care

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- NC Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday a $22 million investment to expand community crisis center and peer respite care across the state.

This is part of an ongoing effort to transform North Carolina's behavioral health crisis response system.

According to a press release, this investment will increase the state's capacity for community-based crisis treatment by 20 percent, meaning to provide people with alternatives to emergency departments or community and state psychiatric hospitals.

Part of NCDHHS' investment will support new community crisis centers, known as facility-based crisis centers, in multiple counties.

These centers provide short-term inpatient mental health stabilization and substance use detox. The investment will create an additional 60 beds for adults and 44 beds for children.

There will be five new community crisis centers for adults in Alamance, Forsyth, New Hanover, Pitt and Vance Counties.

New crisis centers for children will also be added in Gaston, Pitt and Vance.

NCDHHS partnered with other organizations to decide what locations would benefit the most from a crisis center.

The centers will join a network of 24 facility-based crisis centers in 22 other counties across the state.

Part of the $22 million investment will support a new peer respite center -- a voluntary resource for people seeking mental health, substance use, or behavioral health crisis support -- in Wake County.

This will be the third peer respite program in North Carolina.

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The program is a home-like setting and among the least restrictive options, offering 24-hour access to peer support specialists.

"Sometimes, people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis just need two things: a quiet, safe place to go and a conversation with someone who gets it," Kelly Crosbie said. "Peer respite services are such an important part of our behavioral health crisis response system because they offer non-clinical support from people who know what it's like to work through their own mental health or substance use struggles and live a fulfilling, productive and happy life in recovery."

Crosbie is the MSW, LCSW, Director of the NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services.

More than $130 million of the $835 million investment in behavior health in the 2023 state budget has or will be allocated to improving North Carolina's crisis response system. Facility-based crisis centers and peer respite programs are part of this effort.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis right now, help is available to anyone, anytime. Call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org. People who speak Spanish can now connect directly to Spanish-speaking crisis counselors by calling 988 and pressing option 2, texting "AYUDA" to 988, or chatting online at 988lineadevida.org or 988Lifeline.org. For additional support, call the NCDHHS Peer Warmline at 1-855-PEERS NC (855-733-7762) to speak with a peer support specialist, someone who understands.

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