MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One of the leading providers of mental health care in the Mid-South broke ground on a new center in Binghamton Friday.

Alliance Healthcare Services broke ground on the upcoming Crisis Wellness Center at 3206 Broad Avenue.

The center, which Alliance says will be 55,000 square feet, will cost $34 million. Alliance says $21.5 million has already been secured, including $7 million in funding from the State of Tennessee.
“Alliance Health Service’s promise to Memphis began more than 50 years ago when the organization began caring for the people of our community,” Alliance CEO Laurie Powell said in a statement. “Today, we are proud to be a leader in this community, delivering best-in-class mental health treatment and recovery services. And when our new state-of-the-art crisis wellness center comes online in 2025, our capacity for care will reach even more people.”

Alliance says it will work with law enforcement and fire departments in Shelby County to divert people with mental illness from the jail system and help them get proper treatment.

The organization says the services will “save taxpayers millions of dollars each year by helping people in crisis avoid unnecessary emergency room visits.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee attended the ceremony.

“Law enforcement and first responders are the ones called to the scene,” Lee said. “The options for what they have to do with those folks is to take them to the emergency room or take them to jail. Oftentimes, people in a mental health crisis don’t need to go to the emergency room, and they certainly don’t need to go to jail.”

Alliance says the center will be open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. It’s expected to be completed by December of 2024