Aug 15, 2025 -- by Cara Chapman (Champlain Valley Reporter) , in Plattsburgh, NY
Emergency rooms are set up to handle medical emergencies. They're less equipped to help people in a mental health or addiction crisis. That can make it harder to get patients connected with the treatment and resources that can help them on the path toward recovery.
A new intensive crisis stabilization center in Plattsburgh is designed to help fill that gap.
"A place to call, 988, right? Someone to come, and then a place to go, and so we would be the place to go," said Ron "Buster" Garrow, the center's program director.
Cara ChapmanNew crisis center in Plattsburgh to help fill gap in behavioral health services
Garrow and the folks at Champlain Valley Family Center have spent the last three years getting the facility up and running. It's located on the first floor of Cumberland Hall at the MHAB Life Skills Campus, which offers transitional housing to people in recovery.
The center is designed to accommodate up to eight adults and four minors at a time. Garrow said they'll be able to come in 24/7/365 to get the help they need for very serious behavioral health problems.
"We're talking about somebody that could be in withdrawal, we're talking about an individual who may have some suicidal ideation going on," Garrow said. "Those are things we can help with ... We can provide services to that person and keep them safe and offer them support."
When people walk into the center, they'll get registered, meet with a peer advocate and get triaged by a nurse who will help develop their treatment plan. That might involve meeting with a counselor, getting a prescription for the medication they need or getting referred to other services, like housing or inpatient treatment. The goal is to connect them to those services and get them back out in the community in 24 hours or less.
The big idea here is to give people in crisis a place to go that isn't the emergency room. Garrow said a key difference is that anyone admitted to the crisis center must come in voluntarily.
"We're working with law enforcement, we're working with EMS, we're working with 911 to try to build a system that they kind of understand the folks that would be appropriate for the crisis center and the folks that would be served better by going to ER," he said.
This center is the second of its kind in New York. Champlain Valley Family Center got more than $2 million to bring it online. That's part of a broader $75 million investment by the state to create a total of nine facilities.
State and local officials spoke at an open house in late July. Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, commissioner of the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) said, while overdose deaths in New York state are trending down, there's still more work to be done.
"If anyone dies of an overdose, that's too much," she said. "We know that these are preventable and we have effective treatment. This work here with the crisis stabilization center is a key way to improve access to services and to support people in the community so that we can prevent overdose deaths and we can improve people's lives."
Champlain Valley Family Center plans to start taking clients at the crisis center in early September.