TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas —
Officials in Travis County are reviewing feedback and questions about the launch of a mental health diversion pilot program.
On Wednesday morning, community members got a chance to talk about Travis County's proposed mental health diversion center at an "Issues & Eggs" breakfast meeting hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance.
Attendees also heard about the launch of a smaller-scale pilot program the County wants to start soon, before the new center is built. The program would provide an alternative for people to get treatment instead of being taken to jail if they have a run-in with law enforcement due to their mental illness.
"I really think this will be transformational for our community. Because right now, there's just no good place for people to go who are kind of running into the criminal justice system, really, because they have a mental health need that is not met by our community," Travis County Judge Andy Brown said. "This should meet that need and should really make our community a safer place."
The panel event on Wednesday was a chance for people to hear the plans for the pilot and weigh in.
County officials say it's important to hear from community members about the best ways to meet their needs.
"If there are things we're not thinking about for the pilot and people want to raise those, there's still time to have input into what the pilot looks like," Brown said. "Also, just to talk about it and the fact that we are heading down this road to having not only the pilot, but a permanent mental health diversion center.
Pamela Bryant has experience with the Dallas diversion program and now runs an Austin nonprofit, Walking By Faith Prison Ministry, to help others.
"[It's very important that they're impacting it and letting everyone know and letting the community know, where people could be a part of the different voices, the different languages that they're using and be a voice like, 'I am a person with a lived trauma and mental had, you know, past,'" Bryant said.
The pilot version would partner with mental health facilities in the county to use their pre-existing facilities for in-take and treatment.
The program would be able to help about 25 people at a time. The County hopes to open it as early as this spring.