by Brenda Sutherlin
Wellstone Emergency Services (WES) is a new wellness center located in Huntsville, Alabama. The nonprofit mental health facility offers services to those who are in a mental health crisis.
This center is the first to offer these services in North Alabama. This facility will help to alleviate, “undue burdens on hospital emergency room workers, and law enforcement.”
Jeremy Blair, Wellstone CEO, said the 25,000-square foot, state-of-the-art crisis center provides services to adults who are in a mental health crisis. Blair said, “we can stabilize them, diagnose them, and set them on the road to long-term recovery.”
Mental illness is a condition that affects many in American society. Without the proper care and diagnosis, a cycle of hopelessness continues.
Wellstone clinicians encourage members of the community to learn about mental illness to eliminate the stigma associated with it and with substance abuse.
Often those who are in contact with someone experiencing a mental health crisis do not know how to handle the situation. Most of the time law enforcement is called and the person is jailed or taken to the emergency room. While there, the person is calmed and sent home, yet the condition continues.
Wellstone Emergency Services (WES) receives state funding and support for patient care. One of the purposes of WES is to provide a calming atmosphere for its clients and give them a sense of being personable and not made to feel like, “they’re in a hospital or an institution.”
In the first seven months at its temporary location, 150 clients were served, and 10 beds were available. Patients are allowed to stay up to seven days. A dining hall, activity room, and group rooms are also available.
Clients who are experiencing a mental health crisis may be delusional, hallucinating, suicidal, or dealing with substance abuse. A client expressed her gratefulness for the clinic and said that she has been traumatized by some clinics that she had been admitted to for bipolar treatment. She continued to say, “WES staff cares, they treat me with compassion, and the doctors and therapists are a blessing.”