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Jeremy Blair’s vision came true on Monday.
The CEO of Wellstone Behavioral Health in Huntsville has seen a need for emergency care for those who develop mental health crises, and a system of crisis centers across Alabama has struggled for years to meet the demand.
On Monday, Blair welcomed Gov. Kay Ivey and Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell to the Wellstone campus to cut the ribbon outside the seemingly unreachable facility.
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It is a $10 million facility located north of the Wellstone campus at Memorial Parkway and Huntsville Golf Road. It includes 16 beds with the potential to grow to 24 beds and what Blair said is a viable alternative to previous jail options or hospital emergency rooms.
Addressing the crowd at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, he pointed to former Gov. Lurleen Wallace for leading the first effort to address the mental health care crisis in Alabama. But those efforts have since been largely forgotten, Ivey said.
“It has sat on the back burner for too long in the last three decades,” the governor said.
Thanks to funding from the state Legislature, crisis centers are open or will soon be in Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile in addition to the Huntsville area — which, despite Monday’s ribbon-cutting, don’t normally take patients for weeks.
The Legislature appropriated funds to help build facilities in Tuscaloosa and Dothan.
In Huntsville, Wellstone received $5 million. The remaining $5 million is being sought through grants and local government funding.
“I have no doubt that this center will change lives for the better,” Evie said.
In addition to the governor and state mental health commissioner, the event brought together seven state legislators and two mayors. And the theme running through the event was that mental health should be considered as important as physical health.
“Mental health is just as important as physical health,” said House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville. “There is no difference.”
Events like Monday and the Crisis Center go a long way in helping to break down the negative stigma around addressing mental health, Blair said.
“I think it speaks volumes for Gov. Evie to be here today,” Blair said. “And as Leader Ledbetter said, we can no longer separate mental health care and physical health because they are one and the same. When we neglect our mental health, we eventually neglect our physical health. The better to understand and realize that.” “We have to do the work. I think more and more people are realizing that it’s okay if it’s not okay. And they’re looking for that help,” he said.
Blair also said Wellstone plans to break ground next spring on a 24-bed pediatric wing.
“Madison County currently has zero cribs,” Blair said. “And so you can think about the impact it could have on families in this area.”
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