To Jeremy Blair, it only makes sense.

If you have a minor physical health situation, you can get treatment almost immediately at walk-in clinics all over the state.

But what if instead, you have a mental health situation. Where do you go?

Blair, the CEO at Wellstone Behavioral Health in Huntsville, envisions a walk-in clinic for those with mental health issues as readily available as those seeking medicine to fight the flu or an X-ray for a sprained ankle. The Alabama Department of Mental Health is seeking funding for a pilot program for such a facility and Blair said he believes Huntsville is uniquely prepared to be the site for it.

“What if we had a crisis center that law enforcement could bring that person to or the public could bring somebody to who was in a crisis?” Blair said. "Operates 24/7. That’s what we’re missing. If you think about on the physical health side, we’ve invested tons of resources in walk-in clinics, emergency rooms, primary care, etc. that’s everywhere. American Family Care out of Birmingham kind of pioneered that whole mode.

And as for mental health: "Why can't we do the same thing?"

Click here to read AL.com’s 2016 series on Alabama’s mental health crisis

That’s what Lynn Beshear, commissioner of the state mental health department, is seeking. Blair said that through Beshear's guidance, money for a crisis center is included in Gov. Kay Ivey's budget that is now before the state legislature for approval.

Until that budget is passed with those funds intact, the mental health community is sort of holding its collective breath.

“Our first budget priority is to fund and ensure compliance to the Home and Community Based Settings (HCBS) Rule, avoiding a loss of $386 million federal dollars to the state and the people we serve," the mental health department said in a statement to AL.com. "The Governor has included funding for HCBS in her budget. Until the session concludes, we are unable to weigh in on how additional priorities will be funded or what may be included in the final budget. However, we welcome the opportunity in the interim to educate the public on a full continuum of crisis care.”

Behind the scenes and beyond no-comment statements, a bevy of activity is taking place to make the crisis center a reality.

Blair recently visited two of the 12 crisis centers in Georgia to learn about its state-funded program and said Beshear has also made visits to the Georgia centers. Blair has also studied a similar program in Tennessee that provides five centers across the state.

And Blair has met with Huntsville leaders to pitch the idea for bringing the crisis center to Huntsville and drum up support for some financial backing that would be packaged with state funding.

The lack of mental health crisis centers in Alabama is a crisis unto itself and that void is a "glaring hole I don’t think we can ignore," Blair said, in the state's care of its mentally ill.

In fact, Blair said he believed Alabama should immediately seek to start four crisis centers strategically located across the state and not just settle for one at the outset.

How does it work?

In most cases, Blair said, a person enduring a mental health crisis ends up in one of two places: Jail or a hospital emergency room. Neither place, he said, is appropriate.

A mental health crisis center would be tailored to defuse that crisis.

Georgia uses a three-tier system, Blair said, to treat patients at its crisis centers.

"It's initially triage and maybe that's as far as someone goes," Blair said. "They get referred to our outpatient services the next day or get an assessment or maybe they need medicine and that's all they need. The second tier is what they call temporary observation. That's kind of like a place someone can come for 23 hours. They are observed and case managers and social workers are working with them to get them linked with whatever service they need to be successful and still live in the community, which is the ultimate goal.

"The third tier is an inpatient unit where maybe someone needs a little longer to stabilize, say seven days. That's the tier system we would be looking at it."

In Blair's mind, a model for a crisis center might look like this:

Beds for children and adolescent patients, of which he said there is a shortage.

About 8-12 beds for 23-hour-stay patients.

About 24-32 inpatient beds for longer-term patients.

About 100 employees to operate the center around the clock.

Such a facility could be in a retrofitted building, Blair said, but a lesson learned from Georgia is to build each center from the ground up.

"What I learned from Georgia is to do it right, you probably need to build it ground up and design it in such a way that really addresses that tiered system," Blair said.

Of course, the biggest question of all: How much will it cost?

Blair estimated one center would need about $6-8 million annually, based on the Georgia system. It's not immediately clear how much money Beshear requested for the pilot program.

"In 2009, we cut $40 million out of the department of mental health budget that has never returned," Blair said. "Ten years later, we're in a much better financial state. Why don’t we look at reinstating that $40 million and putting a portion of it toward these facilities? It's that concept of let me look at your checkbook and I'll tell you what you value.

"For a system that has been starved of resources for a long time, putting some resources and investing in something like this, where it's not invest it for investment sake, you really are getting a return on your investment."

Why Huntsville?

Blair cited an example of such an investment paying dividends by pointing to the jail diversion program in Madison County and elsewhere around the state. Those funds are saved by not paying for those suffering from mental health issues to be in jail but are still meeting their obligations in the justice system while also diminishing overcrowding in jails.

"They are in there because they can't navigate the system and we're getting them out," Blair said. "Over the last 18 months, we've gotten 55 clients out of the jail and hooked up to whatever resources they need. Of those 55 over that 18-month period, only one has returned to the jail."

“You’re spending (up to) $200,000 on the front end but you’re saving $400,000-500,000 on the back end. Imagine then if you are doing the same thing with a facility like this.”

The jail diversion program in Huntsville emerged from an effort by late Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison – a longtime mental health treatment advocate who brought renowned mental health crisis expert Leon Evans to the Rocket City to meet with law enforcement and other local leaders in 2016.

Huntsville is also uniquely qualified, Blair said, because of training received by law enforcement in Huntsville, Madison and Madison County. The training is funded after Huntsville police received one of only four federal grants awarded for the program.

The first class of 20 officers from Huntsville police, Madison police and Madison County sheriff's department graduated on Feb. 22 and a second class is now in training.

Mayor Battle, Chief McMurray and Madison City Chief Jernigan attended the Crisis Intervention Graduation today. LE Officers from HPD, @madisonpoliceAL and @mcsosheriffAL are now certified C.I.T. Members. pic.twitter.com/WpGAdEoAGL — Huntsville Police (@HsvPolice) February 22, 2019

The training "marks the beginning of a new initiative designed to improve the way law enforcement and the community respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis," according to Huntsville police.

"What it does is it trains our officers who are so often on the front lines in encountering someone in a mental health crisis how to recognize signs and symptoms and recognize this is a mental health crisis," Blair said. "And gives them the skills to help defuse that mental health crisis."

Blair also commended the support system in Huntsville, including the North Alabama Mental Health Coalition.

If funding for the pilot program passes the legislature and signed into law by Ivey, Blair said the next step would likely be for interested communities to submit a bid to bring that crisis center to their area.

"The commissioner's vision is this would be a blended effort between the Department of Mental Health, state legislators putting money in and local support as well. In my conversations, there is definitely local support for something like this. They understand it. Our police chief and our sheriff, they see the value in this facility. Even our local (legislative) delegation in the conversations I've had are supportive of this effort.

“I don’t think anybody disagrees that we don’t need something like this. It’s more about how to we make it happen.”