A child in the throes of a mental health crisis can’t wait two weeks for help.
In Memphis, wait times for mental health services at hospitals were stretching as long as 15 days. For children in crisis – especially children from low-income families who can’t afford private care – the delay often amplified the trauma, sometimes pushing vulnerable children into hospitals or juvenile detention centers never designed to care for them.
Alliance Healthcare Services (AHS) is closing that gap with a new treatment center designed specifically to care for low-income and underinsured children experiencing acute mental health crises.
With a $10 million New Markets Tax Credit investment from HOPE Enterprise Corporation, AHS built the Children and Youth Crisis Wellness Center in Memphis’s Binghampton neighborhood, a community where poverty rates exceed 50 percent and families already struggle to access basic healthcare.
The $12 million, state-of-the-art facility was designed for urgent care. Families can walk through the door at any hour and find immediate care from professionals trained to work with children and teenagers. The Children and Youth Crisis Wellness Center stands beside a newly completed $34 million adult crisis center. Together, the facilities provide immediate intervention for mental health and substance abuse issues before a crisis turns into long-term instability or incarceration.
In communities where resources are stretched thin, the absence of mental healthcare shows up in living rooms, classrooms, courtrooms, and jail cells. A place where families can get immediate help for a child in crisis is more than a medical facility. It’s part of the community’s safety net.
HOPE invested in more than just a state-of-the-art building. HOPE invested in a place where families find help before a crisis changes a child’s future.