24/7 Harford County Crisis Center Opens For Mental Health, Addiction
BEL AIR, Md. (WJZ) — The ribbon was cut Tuesday morning on the first co-funded public/private partnership in Maryland at the Harford Crisis Center to offer 24/7 behavioral mental health and addiction services.
"This will give us an extra source for folks to come into the crisis center, sometimes you fall to the addiction at two or three in the morning and now you'll have a place to go," said Harford County Executive Barry Glassman.
The center will service adults who are voluntarily seeking behavioral, mental health or substance use health care in a safe and comfortable setting.
"It is offering something that currently our residents don't have, which is immediate access to behavioral health care 24/7," said Pam Llewellyn, director of the Harford Crisis Center.
The center will offer a 24/7 alternative to emergency department treatment for adults experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
The crisis center is managed by the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health in partnership with the Harford County government and others.
"This building is about 16,000 square feet, we have an operating budget of about $5 million," said Lyle Sheldon, president of the University of Maryland and Upper Chesapeake Health.
It's expected the center will serve between 3,000 and 5,000 people each year.
Heather Winkler is a peer recovery coach who is ten years into her recovery from alcohol addiction, she said the new center will help those with addictions all over the country.
"To have somewhere they can come, where it's safe and where they can get some help and know there are resources and they're not going to be judged, and to have it open 24/7 it's going to make a huge difference, I hope that we can help alot of people," Winkler said.
The crisis center will be named the Klein Family Harford Crisis Center, the family is a pillar of the Harford County Community and has long championed quality health care.
"We are humbled as a family to support this project and the critical community asset that the Klein Family Harford Crisis Center represents," said Howard Klein.
The center will open its doors on June 10.