New residential facility hopes to address mental health crisis filling Travis County Jail

Travis County has expanded its community mental health offerings with a 25-bed residential facility in downtown Austin in an effort to keep people experiencing mental health crises out of jail for minor crimes.

Offering men and women struggling with mental health conditions and comorbidities a fresh start, the refurbished Geneveive Tarlton Hearon building on East 15th Street opened its doors Monday, launching a $23 million, three-year therapeutic diversion pilot program. A separate facility on Airport Boulevard will extend its hours to operate 24/7 and be available to receive emergency psychiatric admissions who can be shuffled into the pilot program after they are stabilized.

Travis County Judge Andy Brown said the diversion pilot was modeled on existing centers in Nashville, Tenn., Tucson, Ariz., and Miami. The program could help target some of the approximately 40% of inmates at the Travis County Jail with mental health issues, he said.

The Travis County Commissioners Court hopes to have a larger mental health diversion program up and running in the next five to six years, Brown has said, but a larger program would require a facility with more beds, which is still in the planning stages.

According to Integral Care, the county's mental health authority , patients will be referred to the center by emergency rooms, mental health public defenders, EMS and law enforcement agencies. Prime candidates for treatment will have committed "victimless, misdemeanor offenses and be nonviolent," and be homeless and cycling in and out of jail. Referred patients will be able to stay at the voluntary facility for approximately three months, receiving psychological and psychiatric support while rebuilding their lives.

Marisa Malik, an Integral Care administrator, said the two-story building will house up to nine women and 16 men in separate units. She said that men often make up a larger portion of the populace seeking community mental health treatment, but the facility also would be equipped to take in individuals who identify as trans.

"We want to be able to provide some normalcy, compared to either where they're coming from or where they're heading, (and) get them into the habit of day-to-day living so they can be successful independently within the community," said Aurora Amador, an Integral Care administrator.

Patients will have a regimented schedule, starting with breakfast, before reciting their "highs" and "lows" at a morning meditation circle, and going into group activities and counseling sessions. Since the program is meant to prepare patients to be self-sustaining, they will learn life skills like doing laundry and medication management as part of its "full wraparound service," Amador said. They will be encouraged to apply for jobs and housing once they've made progress in their treatment.

The program also will employ peers who will share their experiences as formerly incarcerated or homeless individuals with patients, Malik said.

"Sometimes it's hard for people to connect with a clinician. ... (The peers) are able to engage and build rapport and help someone walk through their recovery process because they've been there," she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: New residential facility hopes to address mental health crisis filling Travis County Jail