St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper announced the Safe Haven Crisis Receiving Center, the main point of entry into St. Tammany’s behavioral health system, officially opened on Monday, October 25, 2021.
The Safe Haven Crisis Receiving Center, which is just the second Crisis Receiving Center Level III in the State of Louisiana, is designed to provide identification, intervention and stabilization for those in a behavioral health crisis. With the opening of the Crisis Receiving Center, healthcare professionals, law enforcement and families will now have an alternative to the emergency room or jail during a behavioral health crisis.
The Crisis Receiving Center is a 23 bed unit, with two nurses stations, a nourishment station and other amenities. The average stay is between 24-72 hours, which is a critical time for those experiencing a crisis.
Start Corporation, a non-profit that provides supportive housing, case management, and clinical services to persons with low income and/or behavioral, physical or developmental challenges or disabilities, will operate the Center.
A spike in suicides led St. Tammany Parish Government to conduct a 2014 study of the behavioral health system. One of the recommendations was to reduce the over utilization of law enforcement, emergency certificates, emergency room visits and jail for individuals in a behavioral health crisis.
The Parish purchased the shuttered Southeast Louisiana Hospital campus and renamed it to Safe Haven.
St. Tammany Parish would like to thank its partners who helped to make this project possible, Coroner Dr. Charles Preston and his staff, the 22nd Judicial District Court judges and staff, Sheriff Randy Smith and his staff, Acadian Ambulance, NAMI St. Tammany and its Executive Director Nick Richard, Florida Parishes Human Services Authority and its Executive Director Richard Kramer, the Northshore legislative delegation, St. Tammany Parish Health System, Slidell Memorial Hospital, Ochsner Northshore, and countless others.
