MUNCIE, Ind. — The city of Muncie is looking to combat mental health and substance abuse issues with a new crisis center.
Work is almost finished on the new crisis center that sits at the corner of 8th and Hoyt Avenue.
Construction on the nearly 6,000-square-foot building has been going on for more than a year, and cost a little more than $800,000. The facility will offer numerous mental health resources.
“We will have crisis services, that will be staffed with a license therapist, and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. We will also have law enforcement in the building too and we’ll be partnering with them and they have social workers too,’ said Lisa Suttle, the vice president of Behavioral Health Services with Meridian Health. “There’s just a huge need throughout the state but our county too as well and it’s just really important we are where the patients are at.”
The city partnered with Meridian Health to make this a reality. It’s a plan Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour said the area needs.
“I want to be able to help people who are struggling, and this is a good way we felt to do it,” said Mayor Ridenour. “What we find is people get in situations whether it’s substance abuse or mental health, where they make poor decisions and it’s because they are in those situations. So, we put a group of people in our community together to try and come up with what would be the most helpful way for Muncie to encourage people and keep them out of those terrible situations where they end up hurting themselves and losing their lives or hurting someone else.”
City officials said many of the calls first responders take deal with mental health issues.
“We’re definitely ready for it [the center] here in Muncie,” said Mayor Ridenour. “This is not going to be what we would call a treatment center, this is to get people out of crisis and will help get them to areas where they can be served.”
“It can be anything from some mild anxiety to just really totally having a crisis, and feeling just really desperate,” Suttle added.
Mayor Ridenour is hopeful the new crisis center will bring much-needed relief to Muncie and the surrounding areas.
“We hope it can save one life and then two lives and then three, four and five and all of that will then multiply and provide a beacon of hope,” said Ridenour.
The center is expected to open this fall.
