The Mental Health Crisis Center on Brookman Drive is beginningto reveal the face most people will know.

Construction crews have erected the walls and are working tocomplete the roof and exterior appearance of the facility.

“We are completing the block work and starting the brick work,”said Steve Goodwin, project manager for Paul Jackson and SonConstruction, Inc. “We are also completing the roof system.”

The exterior of the center will be the most many people ever seeof the facility, which is designated to hold mental health patientsuntil a room is available at a state facility.

The center is not designed for voluntary outpatient services,but rather as a holding area for patients ordered to a state mentalhospital by court officials. Limited outpatient services for somecourt-ordered patients will be provided.

Presently, mentally ill patients who could pose a danger tothemselves or others have to be housed in the county jail, which isill-equipped for their treatment. Unfortunately, the jail is theonly option Southwest Mississippi judges have until the center iscomplete, said Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop.

“The Chancery Court office could not be more happy it’s beingbuilt,” he said.

The Brookhaven Mental Health Crisis Center will provide 20 bedsfor mental patients awaiting transfer. Projected staffing at thecenter is approximately 30-40 people.

Construction on the Brookhaven center began in June 2006 and ison schedule for a June 2007 completion, Goodwin said.

“It’s gone along real smooth,” he said. “The state had alreadybuilt six just exactly like this so, theoretically, all theproblems have been worked out.”

The Brookhaven center is the last of seven mental health crisiscenters approved in the 1999 legislative session. Six have beenbuilt – in Alcorn, Bolivar, Grenada, Jones, Newton and Panolacounties.

Col. J.K. “Hoopy” Stringer, director to the state Department ofFinance and Administration, canceled the contract to build theBrookhaven center in 2004, blaming an economic downturn beginningin 2000 for the delay. He said the state could not afford to fundthe operations of the existing facilities and he would not releasethe funding to construct the center here until operating funds wereavailable.

That funding became available in the 2006 legislative sessionwith the passage of a bill to fully fund the operations at allseven of the facilities, prompting Stringer to authorizeconstruction to begin at the Brookhaven center.

When it opens, the Brookhaven center is expected to provideservices to 10 counties in Southwest Mississippi.