Binghamton Crisis Stabilization Center Opens in a Former CVS

The Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier cut the ribbon Tuesday on a 10,000-square-foot crisis stabilization center at 34 West State Street in Binghamton, converting a former CVS into a voluntary alternative to the emergency room for people in mental health or substance use crisis.

The building is split down the middle. One side serves adults and the other serves youth, and together they make up MHAST's new supportive crisis stabilization center. Officials described the model as short-term and walk-in: assessments, de-escalation, peer support and safety planning for people who can be helped safely in the community rather than in a hospital.

"I really hope that this center provides a place where they feel welcome, respected, and supported during some of the most difficult moments of their lives," said Kaitlyn Andrews, MHAST's executive director.

A former drugstore with two front doors

Crisis stabilization centers are meant to intercept people before a psychiatric emergency turns into an inpatient admission, and New York has been expanding them as a statewide network. MHAST said the Binghamton site is one of more than 20 opening across New York, and that it builds on the organization's existing mobile crisis team and crisis residence.

Splitting the building by age lets the agency run adolescent and adult services under one roof, each side with its own space, rather than routing teenagers through an adult waiting room.

What paid for it

State officials said the center was built with $1 million in state capital funding and $1.25 million in startup money. It also holds a five-year operating contract from the state Office of Mental Health and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, the two agencies that between them cover mental health and addiction treatment in New York.

"We know that overdoses are preventable. And they're preventable through services like this," OASAS commissioner Dr. Chinazo Cunningham said at the opening.

Broome County executive Jason Garnar framed the center as one piece of a wider local system that includes crisis response, treatment and housing support.

"We're building a stronger system of care right here in Broome County, for crisis response, the treatment, the support of housing, so people can get the help they need and a real chance to get back on their feet," Garnar said. "This crisis stabilization center adds another important piece to that work."

The overdose numbers state leaders brought

Cunningham and other state officials used the opening to point to a sustained decline in fatal overdoses. Overdose deaths are down 44 percent statewide from more than 6,300 in 2023 — a figure officials described as one death every 90 minutes at the time — and down 63 percent in Broome County, from 92 deaths to 34.

Those figures track with the state's own reporting this fall, which showed New York's overdose decline slowing to about 8 percent in the most recent 12-month window after steeper drops in the two years before it, as earlier coverage of the state's trajectory reported. A center that intercepts crises is one of the places where that trend is either sustained or lost.

For people in Broome County looking for mental health care or treatment for substance use disorder, the practical change arrives when the building begins taking clients. The organization's mobile crisis team and crisis residence continue to operate in the meantime, and hospital emergency departments remain the fallback for anyone who cannot be stabilized in the community.

Not yet open to patients

The ribbon cutting was a completion ceremony, not an opening day. The center is not yet accepting clients, and MHAST said an opening date will be announced once final staffing is complete. MHAST turns 100 in 2027.