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Mental Health Agencies Play An Active Role In Sobering Center

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Bill Stamps, KUHF Public Radio)
Last week the Houston City Council approved a plan that will change how the police department deals with public intoxication. Currently violators are arrested and taken to jail. The new plan calls for the construction of a “sobering center” where individuals will be taken instead. Many of those taken to the center could have mental health issues to go along with substance abuse problems.

Police arrest people for public intoxication all the time. And while they do get the occasional rowdy football fan who’s out of control or someone who leaves a bar drunk and gets in a fight in the parking lot, they say the majority of those taken into custody for being drunk are homeless people with both substance and psychological issues.

That’s why local mental health agencies are playing an active role in getting the new sobering center up and running.

Andrea Usanga, director of policy for Mental Health America in Houston, says “While perhaps the primary issue that a number of these individuals will be facing is some type of substance abuse disorder, they may also have a mental illness that needs to be treated over the long term.”

The Houston Sobering Center will be located at a downtown building owned by the Star of Hope. They plan to model it after a similar center in San Antonio that is said to be very successful. (For more on this story see KUHF Public Radio)

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