- An inpatient hospital unit (or inpatient hospital units) that can help care for adult and youth with mental health and substance abuse conditions.
- A crisis unit that can serve emergency detentions, voluntary detentions and longer crisis care.
- A mobile crisis team.
- A broad variety of mental health and substance abuse services.
These services are also necessary for communities with smaller populations, so ways must be explored and developed to offer this care regionally.
One of the clear issues that came up in this report is that the Journey Home crisis center “that closed in January 2020 played a clear role in the crisis
continuum, especially for individuals awaiting a decision about involuntary commitment.” (pg 44) This is an issue not only for Lewis and Clark County, but for communities across the state as this type of crisis care facilities have struggled to maintain funding.
This is one of the essential issues that the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Committee is working to analyze and potentially address as part of the SJR 14 and HJR 35 analyses of the mental health treatment system.
NAMI Montana is grateful to Lewis and Clark County and the Addictive and Mental Disorders Division for funding this valuable research.
Matt Kuntz
Executive Director
NAMI Montana
