Linn County Mental Health Access Center now open 24/7

CEDAR RAPIDS — Starting Friday, the Linn County Mental Health Access Center is now available around the clock — 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year — taking walk-ins for adults ages 18 and over who are experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

Patients can receive services without an appointment and do not have to be residents of Linn County to receive services at the center. People can come to the center on their own or be brought to the center by loved ones, law enforcement or mobile crisis teams. The facility is located at 501 13th St. NW, Cedar Rapids.

“This is a great day for our community,” Center Director Erin Foster said in a statement. “We have been working toward this milestone since first opening our doors in March 2021. Having a safe place where people can come at any time day or night to get help with a mental health or substance use crisis is a major achievement for the health of our community.”

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Foster told The Gazette the center needed to add four full-time staff — allowing one to two triage employees to be on-site at any given time — to expand hours.

The center already operated 24/7 with its inpatient and sobering services, Foster said, so this expansion allows the walk-in piece to be open around the clock with triage counseling crisis staff available.

“Our funding has always shown the end goal of 24/7,” Foster told The Gazette. “The biggest thing was definitely staffing. The staffing shortage hit everybody really hard, and now we finally got the staffing and the training done in order to cover all of the shifts to go 24/7.”

In fiscal 2023, which ended June 30, 128 people were brought to the facility for help through law enforcement referrals instead of being taken to jail or the hospital. The center served more than 1,200 patients, placed 344 patients into crisis stabilization and made referrals for mental health and substance use disorder services, according to the county.

“Hospital and jail diversion was one of our primary goals when we envisioned an Access Center in Linn County,” Foster said. “Hospitals and jails are not the right places for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Our trained staff can triage a patient, assess their situation, and get them started on crisis stabilization, a sobering unit or some other crisis service generally within the first 60 minutes of their arrival. And we equip every patient with a plan before we discharge them.”

Services available include:

Use of the center’s services is entirely voluntary.

The facility cannot serve individuals in need of immediate medical care; those who are violent upon arrival or immediately before arrival with a likelihood that they will seriously hurt themselves, other patients or center employees. The center also cannot serve minors age 17 or younger.

The center receives funding from Iowa’s Mental Health/Disability Services of the East Central Region.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com