Chris Van Dyke, the Chief Operating Officer for Cullman’s largest mental health service provider, Wellstone, provided some insight to recent progress local mental health initiatives have made and the challenges the field still faces during a community luncheon hosted by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce Friday, Oct. 11.
In the past four years, Van Dyke has written applications for more than $12 million in federal and state grants to fund mental health programs and services in North Alabama. He said he has been pleased with the increase focus Alabama lawmakers have placed on mental health needs in the state.
“Mental illness is usually diagnosed with a crisis,” Van Dyke said. “These changes that have happened in Alabama have kind of happened in the same way. Things were bad. Mental health funding was cut tremendously in 2008 and it hasn’t really come back until very recently. So we kind of built up to this crisis.”
He said the Alabama Department of Mental Health has prioritized the needs of mental health crisis intervention as the nucleus of its plan to address the needs of patients with Wellstone often leading the charge in providing new programs and services. In 2020, Wellstone joined the first round of providers to offer state-funded Mobile Crisis Units in Cullman and Madison counties. Van Dyke said each unit’s two-member team can be deployed to assist those experiencing a mental health crisis. Last year, he said units responded to more than 700 calls and prevented an estimated 93 suicide attempts. More than 25 percent of those calls, he said, were situations which otherwise would have required law enforcement officers and would have resulted in an arrest.
“So they are also reducing costs for the rest of our community by dealing with these crises in a way that is better,” Van Dyke said.
A children’s mobile crisis unit was created in 2023 through a partnership with the Cullman County Department of Human Resources.
Wellstone has also recently opened a 24/7 pediatric unit in Madison County and a 16-bed residential rehabilitation facility. Van Dyke said individual mental health issues are often closely tied with substance abuse and dependency. He said he is hopeful Wellstone can continue to address both issues and announced plans to open a dedicated detox facility within the next year.
While crisis prevention and intervention is one of the most immediate needs in the mental health community, Van Dyke said Wellstone is also committed to improving the day-to-day lives of patients and community members alike.
Within the next few weeks, he said a new apartment complex will be coming online which will provide patients in need of in-home assistance more independence than is available from many other long-term care facilities. He said staff will be on-site at all times to observe residents, but would only intervene if needed.
“It works kind of like a group home … staff can provide meals if they [residents] need it. If not, they can make their own meals. We are just there to make sure they take their medicine and to observe. There’s a lot of support, but they aren’t in a group home and they can have their own space,” Van Dyke said.
Fifteen residents have already been approved to live in the complex and Van Dyke suspects the remaining five beds will be filled quickly.
Wellstone has also received grant funding to start a new after-school program to focus on 9-13 year olds within the DHR system who have also displayed behavioral issues. Van Dyke said students would receive tutoring and behavioral-support services after school.