Staff report
LUMBERTON – Southeastern Regional Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services has been awarded a $350,000 grant by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.
The money will be used to improve access to crisis programs in Robeson, Bladen Columbus and Scotland counties, according to Sharen Prevatte, area director.
"This award validates a vision that we have had for a long while to ensure rapid and comprehensive crisis services to consumers who are sometimes located at distant areas of our four counties," Prevatte said.
Prevatte said the grant will help pay for a crisis unit to be located adjacent to Southeastern Regional Medical Center to provide short-term stabilization services to adults and children, although they will be housed separately. The new facility will allow people who may not need to be hospitalized in the SRMC’s 33-bed psychiatric impatient unit to be treated at a less intensive level. The crisis unit also will eliminate the need for individuals to leave the area to be evaluated and stabilized, Prevatte said.
The Reynolds grant also will help operate the program’s mobile crisis team, which was created to provide face-to-face contact after normal business hours. The mobile team will provide a number of evaluation sites across the four-county region. Prior to the mobile crisis team, all after-hours crisis contacts were by telephone.
Southeastern Regional Area Program/LME was founded in 1964 as Robeson County Mental Health Center and became a four-county entity shortly afterward. The program is governed by a 15-member board with representation from all four counties.
"On behalf of the area board, our staff and our consumers, I want to express our appreciation to the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust for their commitment to our crisis program and to meeting the comprehensive behavioral health care needs of our region," Prevatt said.
The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust was created in 1947 by the will of Mrs. William N. Reynolds of Winston-Salem for health-related programs and services across North Carolina.
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