Linn County Mental Health Access Center now open on weekends

The Linn County Mental Health Access Center will be open for walk-ins on weekends, beginning Saturday.

Effective April 9, individuals 18 years and older experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis can walk into the county Mental Health Access Center, 501 13th St. NW, Cedar Rapids, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. without an appointment and receive help seven days a week.

Services include crisis triage and counseling, mental health evaluations and prescriber appointments, peer support, crisis stabilization and the sobering unit. Services are provided by Abbe Health, Area Ambulance Service, Foundation 2, and St. Luke’s Chemical Dependency.

For after-hour services, individuals can call Foundation 2 Mobile Crisis Teams at (319) 362-2174. The center cannot serve minors, people in need of immediate medical care or people who are violent upon arrival.

The center has been open for just over a year since March 2021 and has seen over 500 walk-in patients in its first year.

Previously, the center was operating Monday through Friday and the hope was to expand to seven days and eventually be open and staffed 24/7, but that has been a challenge due to the workforce shortage affecting many industries, Director Erin Foster previously told The Gazette.

Since the center receives funding from the East Central Mental Health Region, it is open to individuals from nine counties — Benton, Bremer, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Iowa, Johnson, Jones and Linn. The counties’ property taxes help fund the access center.

Patients can be brought in by law enforcement or mobile crisis teams, but patients can also be brought in with loved ones or come on their own. Use of the center’s services is 100 percent voluntary.

Comments: (319) 398-8255; gage.miskimen@thegazette.com