GREENFIELD, Ind. — As mental health needs continue to grow, Hancock County leaders say a new center is bringing critical services together under one roof.
Hancock Health recently opened the Green Family Foundation Behavioral Health Services building, expanding mental health care access in the county and consolidating services that were previously spread across multiple locations.
“We are in the Green Family Foundation Behavioral Health Services building,” said Amanda Everidge, executive director of behavioral health services at Hancock Health. “It’s very, very special.”
For the first time, Hancock Health’s counseling and psychiatric services, Connection Center and Mobile Response Team are housed in the same facility.
Everidge helped lead the effort to bring the services together.
“It facilitates better collaboration,” she said.
The center offers outpatient mental health care, substance misuse programming, crisis response services and more, all aimed at making it easier for people to access help when they need it.
“We have our outpatient mental health and substance use treatment programming,” Everidge said. “Our Connection Center has support navigators and peer recovery specialists.”
Law enforcement leaders say the center makes it easier to connect people to resources.
“It’s just one phone call as opposed to trying to research how can, who in this, in the community,” said Capt. Bridget Foy, jail commander for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s another tool that law enforcement can add.”
Foy said she hopes the expanded access to care will reduce the number of people who end up in jail.
“Not everybody deserves to go to jail,” she said. “Some people that need resources and help, this is the way that we can go about doing it.”
For longtime pediatrician Dr. PJ Halter, the new center means families may no longer have to leave Hancock County to get mental health care for their children.
“The increase in mental health concerns has risen tremendously over the last decade,” Dr. Halter said. “A lot of these kids ended up having to be seen in mental health facilities in Indianapolis, but for some of these families, that's a real challenge, and to have something like this in the community really brings it closer to home.”
Everidge said having teams in one location will allow the center to grow and better meet the community’s needs.
“It’s going to allow us to meet the needs as we’re able to work together a little bit easier,” she said. “And it’s also going to allow us to grow both in our services, treatment we are able to provide, and staffing to meet those needs.”
The facility is located at 156 Muskegon Drive in Greenfield. Leaders said they wanted a location that was walkable and easily accessible to the community.
The years-long project was funded through county support and the Hancock Health Foundation’s $4.5 million Mental Health Campaign and Substance Use Treatment Campaign, with significant support from the Green Family Foundation.
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Naja Woods is the In Your Community senior reporter for Lawrence/Hancock counties. She started her journalism career in 2019 after graduating from Knox College in Illinois. She’s always looking forward to making a difference by empowering the diverse communities throughout the area and helping share their unique perspectives through storytelling. Share your story ideas and important issues with Naja by emailing news@wrtv.com.
