Sandhills Center selected Alexander Youth Network to provide facility-based crisis services for children and adolescents in a new building, currently under construction, in Guilford County, North Carolina. The organization was selected after a competitive procurement process that began in June 2020. The new crisis services are intended to divert children and adolescents who have significant behavioral health needs from hospitalizations and emergency departments, when appropriate. Facility-based crisis services are a direct and indirect, intensive short-term, medically-supervised service provided in a physically-secure setting that is available seven days a week and 365 days a year.
In October 2019, Guilford County government and Cone Health broke ground on a Behavioral Health Urgent Care and adult Facility-Based Crisis Center adjacent to Sandhills Center’s new child/adolescent facility-based crisis center. The partnership between Sandhills Center, Guilford County, Cone Health, and now Alexander Youth Network creates an enhanced level of integrated health services for individuals in crisis that addresses both mental and physical health care needs.
Sandhills Center is the local management entity-managed care organization that manages public mental health, intellectual/developmental disabilities and substance use disorder services for the citizens of Anson, Guilford, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, and Richmond counties. Facility-based crisis services are offered 24 hours a day in facilities with 16 beds or less. The services provide an alternative to hospitalization for eligible individuals who present escalated behavior due to mental illness, substance use disorder, or intellectual/developmental disabilities.
Alexander Youth Network was founded in 1888 in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a rescue mission for women and children. In 1946, the agency began serving children with emotional and behavioral challenges. As the organization has grown throughout the years, service delivery enhancements now include Psychiatric Residential Treatment programs, Day Treatment, Therapeutic Foster Care, Intensive In-Home Treatment, Outpatient Therapy, Substance Use Disorder Treatment, and Multisystemic Therapy. Last year, Alexander Youth Network merged with Guilford County-based mental health provider Youth Focus to expand its comprehensive behavioral health services to children in 14 counties throughout North Carolina.
This was announced by Sandhills Center on December 2, 2020.
Contact information: Victoria Whitt, Chief Executive Officer, Sandhills Center, Post Office Box 9, West End, North Carolina 27376; 910-673-9111; Fax: 910-673-6202; Website: www.sandhillscenter.org
