Services

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide comprehensive behavioral health services close to home.

Access to Care

Physician Referral

Sliding Fee Discount Program 

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide therapeutic services in an outpatient setting. Outpatient treatment focuses on problem solution, symptom resolution or reduction, and stabilization. The focus of treatment is highly variable, but depends upon the consumer's presenting symptoms. Services include:

  • Assessment/Evaluation
  • Diagnostic Testing
  • Individual Counseling
  • Group Counseling
  • Family Counseling
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Pre-Hospital/Court Screening
  • Physician Assessment
  • Medication Monitoring
  • Medication Administration
  • Mental Health Consultation
  • Family Support Services
  • Basic Living Skills

Outpatient services are available 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday with evening and weekend hours, if needed. Southwest's outpatient offices are located in Brewton, Evergreen, Grove Hill and Monroeville, Alabama.

Case Management Services assist eligible individuals in gaining access to needed medical, social, educational, and other services. Case Management Services may be provided for consumers who reside in their own home, the household of another, or in a supervised residential setting. No case management services will be provided for consumers who are in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, intermediate care facility, prison, jail, or other total care facility.

The scope of the program is to provide community-based outreach services for consumers diagnosed with a serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. Case Management Services will assist consumers in gaining access to needed medical, social, educational, and other services to assist in re-integration into the community upon discharge from inpatient care. The case manager provides these services through telephone contact with consumer, face-to-face contact with consumer, telephone contact with collaterals, or face-to-face contacts with collaterals. Services provided will include:  needs assessment, case planning, service arrangement, linking with social support, reassessment and follow-up, and monitoring. In addition, if needed, crisis intervention, family support, and basic living skills training services will be provided.

The service area includes Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe counties. Hours of operation are 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some services may be provided during evenings, weekends or holidays.


Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide 24-hour, 7 days per week Emergency/Crisis Response Services. This service is available to all residents of the catchment area, and is accessed through a published toll-free number, 800-239-4673. During weekdays, Southwest's Emergency/Crisis Outpatient Team is responsible for all Emergency/Crisis calls and requests for Pre-Hospital Screening Services. After hours, weekend, and holiday calls are answered by the Emergency/Crisis Line answering service. The service is designated to respond to an emergency need for mental health services and includes the capacity to provide:

  • Telephone response within 30 minutes by a credentialed staff.
  • Face-to-Face response for consumers who meet the center's Emergency/Crisis criteria by a credentialed staff person at a hospital emergency room, jail or outpatient mental health clinic.
  • Consultation/recommendation for handling special and difficult cases, e.g. violent/suicidal cases.
  • It is the policy of Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems not to utilize volunteers to provide telephone Emergency/Crisis response. Only credentialed staff members, as defined by DMH standards, will be employed to provide these services.  

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide an Adult Day Treatment Program in Grove Hill, Alabama. Day Treatment provides active structured rehabilitative interventions that specifically address individual life goals, build on personal strengths, improve functioning, increase skills, promote a positive quality of life, and develop support networks. The goal of Rehabilitative Day Treatment is to provide long-term recovery services to improve functioning, facilitate recovery, achieve personal life goals, regain self-worth, optimize illness management, and help consumers to become productive participants in family and community life.

Services offered to Day Program participants will provide comprehensive consumer education through exploration, practice opportunities, and demonstrations. These learning experiences seek to enhance a consumer's social, emotional, and intellectual skills while seeking to reduce deficits in these areas. Treatment services such as medication assessment, monitoring and administration will be available to program participants through the outpatient program of the center.

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide In-Home Intervention services for adult consumers in Clark, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe Counties. In-Home Intervention provides time limited, home based services provided by a treatment team (two-person team, one master's level mental health professional or Registered Nurse and one bachelor's level) to defuse an immediate crisis situation, stabilize the family unit, and prevent out of home placement of the consumer. The goal of in-home intervention is to stabilize crisis situations, to avoid and prevent psychiatric hospitalizations, and to increase compliance with mental health services. Additional goals are to improve functioning, facilitate recovery, achieve personal life goals, regain self-worth, optimize illness management, and help consumers become productive participants in family and community life.

Key service functions include as necessary:

  • Individual/Family Counseling
  • Crisis Management (24-hour availability)
  • Family Therapy or Family/Support Education
  • Case Management
  • Medication Monitoring (includes medication administration if an RN is a member of the team)
  • Mental Health Consultation
  • Basic Living Skills
  • In-Home Support—provision of services by the bachelor's level team member when the master's level therapist is absent.
  • In-Home Intervention Services are generally available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., with 24-hour availability for crisis management.

Pineview Apartments is a supportive housing apartment complex for persons with mental illness disabilities. Pineview offers a safe and affordable housing alternative for individuals with disabilities that reaffirms independence, community living, and promotes self-determination and self-sufficiency. Pineview is committed to providing a flexible and responsive support system that respects the rights and choices of individual tenants. Pineview is not a treatment program, however support services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to assist and support individuals as requested. Pineview is located in East Brewton, Alabama and is available for eligible consumers from the Southwest catchment area.

Supports and Services:

  • Social and recreational activities
  • Assistance linking tenants with available community resources
  • Assistance in securing transportation for necessary appointments when family members are not available. ECATS transportation is available for tenants upon request
  • Assistance as representative payee for tenants requesting this service
  • Assistance with/or notification of EMS personnel in emergency situations
  • Other Case Management Services
  • Basic Living Skills

Clarke Place Residential Home is a congregate living facility consisting of 14 Beds in Grove Hill, Alabama. Congregate living facilities are structured programs that are supervised twenty-four hours a day, seven days per week by caring and qualified staff. The mission of residential services is to assist individuals with serious mental illness to understand the nature of their illness and gain the social, educational and vocational skills to move toward independence. Residential programs offer a structured environment that will recognize and reinforce individual strengths and remediate weaknesses through appropriate treatment and respectful care. Residential programs strive to ensure adequate psychiatric and social development, while integrating with other community mental health services, to provide the residents with comprehensive and viable alternatives that promote independent living within the community.  Southwest's residential programs serve serious mentally ill residents of Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe Counties, however, consumers from other counties may be served depending on availability of space.

Clarke Place is a designated Mental Health Facility operating in accordance with Section 4903 of the Community Mental Health Service Standards. The residential program receives persons for evaluation, examination, admission, and treatment pursuant to the provision of the Alabama Commitment Law.

The Compass School is a collaborative effort of Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems, Escambia County District Judge, Escambia County Schools and Brewton City Schools. Each of the community agencies has committed resources for the development of the program. The school will serve a maximum of 45 adolescents in Escambia County, Alabama. The school is registered with the State Department of Education through the Escambia County School Board.

The Compass School Program is in response to the need for community based mental health and education services for Escambia County Adolescents with emotional or behavioral problems. The Compass School’s purpose is to provide an all-inclusive program of care and support for the student in a safe and structured alternative school setting. The anticipated outcome is, that through various therapeutic and educational measures, the adolescent’s emotional and behavioral problems can be effectively addressed. To help facilitate this change, the program will successfully integrate the challenges of physical training, life skills training, and individualized educational goals to address the student's life goals and build on their personal strengths and assets.

The following are some of the major goals and objectives of the Compass School:

  •     To achieve success through individualized educational and behavioral health services.
  •     To provide opportunities to develop a positive behavioral value system.
  •     To offer quality education and encourage academic success.
  •     To develop a positive work ethic and responsible behavior at home, school and in the community.
  •     To reduce juvenile justice recidivism by providing aftercare and support services to the student and their families.

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems provide treatment and rehabilitation for substance abuse and/or chemical dependency. Southwest offers an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in Brewton, Alabama. The facility is open from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Primary program activities are conducted from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Over the phone screenings for admission to the program can be completed by calling 866-933-1355 . The treatment program consists of three phases, Phase I—12 weeks, three days per week, Phase II—28 weeks, three days per week and Phase III—continuing care one day per week for 26 weeks.

The program gives preference in admission to individuals with substance use disorders in the following priority:

  •     Pregnant individuals with intravenous (IV) substance use disorders.
  •     Pregnant individuals with substance use disorders.
  •     All other individuals with IV substance use disorders.
  •     Women with substance use disorders and dependent children.
  •     All other individuals with substance use disorders.
  •     Services to be Provided

Services are designed to meet each consumer's needs and goals to include, as needed:

  •     Group therapy
  •     Individual therapy
  •     Assessment
  •     On-going monitoring and regularly assigned home assignments
  •     Family therapy, as appropriate
  •     Referrals to inpatient treatment, as needed
  •     Consumer Testimonials

Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems is pleased to be a part of the Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe County communities and we strive to build strong partnerships with local schools, governments, health agencies, businesses, and organizations. Our goal with these partnerships is to educate the citizens of Southwest Alabama about mental health and substance use disorders. Southwest invites other agencies, civic groups and business/industry to call on us to provide workshops or presentations to provide information about our services or issues related to mental health and substance use disorders. We look forward to speaking with your group or organization.

  • Accounting/Business Office
  • Consultation and Education
  • Environmental Services
  • Human Resources
  • Indigent Drug Program
  • Management Information Services
  • Quality Assurance/Performance Improvement

Access to Care

Access to Care is the first point of contact for consumers entering into our care or returning to services. Our Access to Care team can screen consumers to determine their needs, schedule appointments, handle hospital or doctor office referrals and connect callers with appropriate services.

Our Access to Care department is available from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

You can reach us at 251-575-4203, or toll-free at 800-239-4673.

Referral Form

Instructions to complete the referral form:

  • Please complete all blanks with as much information that is available.
  • If this is a psychiatric emergency, please call our office from the numbers on the website or our crisis line at 800-239-4673.
  • If a child is under age 14, we must have permission from a parent or legal guardian to see the child.
  • Once the form is completed, you may fax it to our offices.

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Sliding Fee Discount Program

It is the policy of Southwest Alabama Behavioral Health Care Systems to provide services regardless of the consumer’s ability to pay.

Southwest offers a Sliding Fee Discount Program to all consumers, with  each consumer being placed on the appropriate level of the sliding fee scale, based on the reported annual income and family size. Annual income is the total amount of money earned annually.

Income is considered to be:

  • gross wages/salaries
  • income from business and self-employment
  • unemployment compensation
  • workers’ compensation
  • Social Security
  • Supplemental Security Income
  • Veterans’ payments
  • survivor benefits
  • pension or retirement income
  • royalties/dividends 
  • estates and trusts
  • alimony
  • child support
  • assistance from outside the household

Family is defined as: a group of two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoptions residing together; all such people are considered members of one family. Southwest also accepts non-related household members when calculating family size.  

All consumers seeking services are assured that they will be served regardless of ability to pay. The Federal Poverty Guidelines are used in creating the sliding fee schedule (SFS) to determine eligibility and are updated annually.  For example, Discounts: Those with incomes at or below 100% of the poverty threshold will receive a full 100% discount for health care services. Those with incomes above 100% of the poverty threshold, but at or below 200% of the threshold, will receive a nominal charge.

Notification of Fee

Southwest will notify consumers of the Sliding Fee Discount Program by:

  • Access to Care staff will inform all consumers (new or re-admitted) at the time of the initial call of the Sliding Fee Discount Program, the necessary documentation that is required at the first visit, in order to determine program eligibility.
  • Consumer Handbook is provided to all consumers at the initial visit. The policy is included in the Consumer Handbook that describes the Sliding Fee Discount Program.
  • Southwest posts notification of the Sliding Fee Discount Program in the waiting area of each outpatient facility.
  • Southwest’s website includes the availability of the Sliding Fee Discount Program in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website.
  • The sliding fee scale is applied to all consumer charges except the $10 drug screen fee. Services will not be denied due to the inability to pay any fees. 

Administration: The Sliding Fee Discount Program procedure will be administered through the Finance Director.

Alternative payment sources: All alternative payment resources will be exhausted, including all third-party payment from insurance(s), federal and state programs. All consumers are eligible for the sliding fee program regardless of their insurance status. 

Completion of Application: The consumer or responsible party will complete the intake application with the Access to Care staff at the time of the initial call. The intake application will serve as the application for the Sliding Fee Discount Program and Access to Center services. Discounts are based on family size and income only.  The consumer will be informed by the Access to Care staff of the Sliding Fee Discount Program, required documentation that must be presented at the time of the initial visit to finalize eligibility. Examples of appropriate documentation are prior year W-2, two most recent pay stubs, letter from employer, and/or letter of self-declaration. If required documentation is not provided, the consumer will be charged the full fee until such time as the required documentation can be obtained. Once presented the fees will be adjusted to the Sliding Fee Discount.

Refusal to Pay: Providing false information or failing to present the requested proof of income will result in the Sliding Fee Discount Program discounts being denied/revoked, full balance of the account(s) restored, and payable immediately. If a consumer verbally expresses an unwillingness to pay or vacates the premises without paying for services, the consumer will be contacted in writing, regarding their payment obligations. Consumers will receive monthly statements providing the balance of their account. Payments can be made toward the account balance upon receipt of the statement, until paid in full. If the consumer does not make an effort to pay or fails to respond within 60 days, this constitutes refusal to pay.  

Changes to Income or Family Size: Consumers will be informed they must notify the Outpatient Office Manager of changes to their annual income and/or family size as needed. The Sliding Fee Discount Program will remain in effect, based on the consumer submitted proof of income and family size, until services are no longer provided by the agency.