Muncie Crisis Center to Assist Hoosiers with Addiction Issues

Source: Jeniffer Fontan / Getty

MUNCIE, IND — A crisis center is opening in Delaware County to help prevent economic instability, legal troubles, and drug and alcohol dependence.

“The city received dollars to support it, and the mayor has been proactive in getting things going in that regard,” says Lisa Suttle, Meridian Health’s Regional Vice President of Clinical Services. “Through the process of the floor plan and what the services look like, we’ve come to where we’re at today.”

Suttle said this project has been in development for a couple of years.

Indiana is facing a nationwide drug crisis that has impacted communities like Muncie, where leaders and law enforcement are noticing more people needing help with mental health treatment, housing services, and drug rehabilitation.

Organizations like Indiana University, the City of Muncie, Meridian Health Services, and Open Door Health Services have helped make this project possible.

“This will be for true mental health concerns,” Suttle says. “This (center) will not replace any diversion or anything like that.”

Suttle says that after COVID, Hoosiers knew the opioid crisis was serious, but the full extent of the problem became clear when the federal government started releasing numbers showing that hundreds of thousands of people were dying from drug overdoses.

“As we’ve come out of that, we are seeing more (overdoses); I think the stigma is less in many ways to where people feel comfortable talking about it, but also having accessibility to being able to connect with somebody is big and I think the state as a whole and the counties individually are working on that.”

When it opens, the crisis center will offer outpatient services for substance abuse, along with support for social service needs and mental health treatment.

Suttle hopes the center will open this fall. The building is located at 8th and Hoyt Avenue.