Dix Crisis Center saved more than 1,500 lives last year across Eastern North Carolina

A local crisis center is saving hundreds of lives, and keeping the pressure off the emergency room while doing it.

The Dix Crisis Center in Jacksonville is a facility-based crisis center where people can go to get emergency mental health or substance abuse crisis intervention, said Assistant Onslow County Manager Sheri Slater.

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The Dix Crisis Center has made a big difference regarding recidivism — the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend. The center has also relieved added pressure on the emergency rooms in the area.

From July 2021, through June 2022, the occupancy rate for the Dix Crisis Center was 81%, right at where the committee requested they be.

"Sometimes it's 100% at a moment, but that's a moment in time, right?" Slater said. "Because every time someone walks out the door, there's less than 100% for a few minutes until the next person walks in. So, for the overall occupancy, we requested 80%. The idea is, if you need more than two or three days, they need to be finding you somewhere else to go. So, we don't really want them to be at 100%, because if they're at 100%, they can't take the next person."

The committee also requested the center's recidivism goal be less than 25% within 30 days. For the last year, Dix's recidivism rate was at 8%. Currently, the center's occupancy rate is 83%, with a 10% recidivism rate, meaning only 10% of occupants are returning to the center within 30 days.

"So, it's kind of a revolving door thing, this is just for crises," Slater said. "Again, if you think of it like an emergency department, if you need more than what I can do for you in these two or three days or these 24 hours, I'm going to put you in the hospital. So, if you need more than two or three days, they need to go into a hospital or a long-term facility."

She said occupancy was a little trickier to get started in the beginning, as the facility opened not long before Hurricane Florence. However, she said largely, once they hit 80%, they've stayed there, or above, and the recidivism has always met the expectation, usually by a good bit.

Slater said that by diagnoses type, 27% of occupants are in for mental health crises as their primary diagnosis, and 72% are in for substance abuse. The remaining 1% are unknown, cases that weren't logged before the data was pulled.

One of the biggest impacts the center has made, though? Releasing pressure on the emergency department.

"In the last year, they served 1,576 guests," Slater said. "That is over 1,500 people that would have gone to an emergency department or would not have gotten treatment, and we know, if they don't get treatment, it gets worse and they do end up somewhere. They end up in jail, they end up in the emergency room, or they end up deceased."

She said the center is only a 16-bed facility, so it's significant how many people have been helped.

"The emergency departments are still seeing significant numbers, so can you imagine what they would be seeing if we didn't have this at all?" Slater said. If you think of it like an emergency room for that kind of service, it's a better option and more appropriate option than our emergency department which is meant primarily for medical needs," Slater said.

How is the center funded, why is it so important?

At Monday's Onslow County Board of Commissioners meeting, Slater presented a renewal of the crisis center's Memorandum of Agreement. The agreement allows Onslow, Carteret, and Craven counties to collaborate with the city of Jacksonville, Onslow Memorial Hospital, and Carteret Health Care, to fund the center.

The partnership works together with Trillium, which Slater said is the center's mental health Managed Care Organization, which helps to make sure the county can make the crisis center viable and sustainable over time.

"Crisis centers are expensive, and they're not well paid for by insurance companies as a rule," Slater said. "Many people that are in that type of crisis don't have insurance, because mental health and substance use crises tend to result in a lack of employment if they are untreated."

Slater said that for over a decade, the community did not have a crisis center like this, which resulted in Onslow Memorial's emergency department being flooded with mental health and substance abuse crises.

She added that the sheriff's and police departments were also overrun, especially as there wasn't an appropriate place to take someone in these crises.

"In response to that, we came up with this, at the time it was a task force, now it's sort of a committee, that continues to monitor the crisis center operation, as well as make sure that we can continue to support it as best we can so that we have that service in our community," Slater said.

Slater said each county involved makes a financial contribution towards the center, and Onslow, along with surrounding counties, already contribute to Trillium, anyway.

She said they collaborated with Trillium in the early stages, about six years ago, discussing everything from how much Trillium could put towards the center, as well as how the counties could come up with the needed funds.

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"To me, it's a real testament to our community," Slater said. "If you look at the partnership that is outlined, it's three counties, a city, and two hospitals. That is not a partnership you see very often, especially when it involves everyone having to put some money in the game."

During Monday's meeting, commissioner Robin Knapp said the partnership has been a monumental task, considering there are different government entities working together, sharing a pot of money.

"I can speak from first-hand experience because my wife is a mental health counselor and a substance abuse counselor, and there are a lot of things we need to do in that respect, but I appreciate the progress and hard work and everything that you've done for that, and I think this is a win for us," Knapp said. "It's not a solution for everything, it's a big start, and we just have to keep moving forward but thank you."

For those interested in more information on the Dix Crisis Center, contact them at 910-378-4809, or visit them at 215 Memorial Drive in Jacksonville.

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at [email protected]