Montgomery County Maryland Operating Budget

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Program Description

24-Hours Crisis Center

This program provides telephone, walk-in, mobile crisis outreach, single adult shelter system screening and referrals, and crisis residential services to persons experiencing situational, emotional, or mental health crises. The Crisis Center provides all services, twenty-four hours/day seven days/week. Much of the work of the Crisis Center focuses on providing the least restrictive community-based service appropriate to the client's situation. The Crisis Center coordinates the mental health response during disasters and community critical incidents, and serves as the afterhours contact for Public Health, STEER (Stop, Triage, Engage, Educate, Rehabilitate), APS (Adult Protective Services), APP (Abused Person Program), and CWS (Child Welfare Services).

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Behavioral Health and Crisis Services

Program Contacts

Contact Monica Martin of the HHS - Behavioral Health and Crisis Services at 240-777-1488 or Grace Pedersen of the Office of Management and Budget at 240-773-1088 for more information regarding this department's operating budget.

Program Performance Measures

Program Performance Measures	Actual FY23	Actual FY24	Estimated FY25	Target FY26	Target FY27
Number of walk-in contacts ¹	5,180	4,602	5,000	5,000	5,000
Number of students identified by schools to be at risk who were referred to the Crisis Center ²	1,630	1,206	1,300	1,300	1,300
Percent of students identified by schools to be at risk that are stabilized utilizing community resources without hospital intervention ³	89%	88%	89%	90%	90%

¹  The Crisis Center has steadily expanded mobile crisis outreach services which may have contributed to the decrease in walk-in contacts. The County may also still be stabilizing after the COVID/post-COVID surge.
²  MCPS has steadily increased the number of licensed mental health professionals within the school system and has provided additional trainings on risk assessment screenings for in-school staff. This appears to have resulted in fewer external referrals to the Crisis Center, with the referrals generally reflecting higher acuity.
³  Despite having overall fewer school referrals from MCPS in FY24, the percentage of students diverted into a community resource has continued to remain high, which reflects the Crisis Center staff's skilled use of community alternatives.

Program Budget Changes

FY26 Recommended Changes	Expenditures	FTEs
FY25 Approved	12776659	75.40
Technical Adj: Annualization of Takoma Park Therapists in the Crisis Center, Fully Offset by Revenue from the City of Takoma Park	249194	2.00
Replace: Annualize Reduction of Federal Grant for Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams, with Full-Year Funding and FTE Billed to the General Fund	-206414	-12.00
Multi-program adjustments, including negotiated compensation changes, employee benefit changes, changes due to staff turnover, reorganizations, and other budget changes affecting multiple programs.	901017	13.00
FY26 Recommended	13720456	78.40