Lily Belle Poling, Contributing Photographer

Continuum of Care, Inc. announced the opening of its Rapid Evaluation, Stabilization and Treatment (REST) Center for adults with mental health and substance use issues on Wednesday morning. 

The Center will serve as a central location for the Elm City Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets — COMPASS — mobile crisis response team and for first responders to bring individuals experiencing non-emergency crises for further evaluation and stabilization. It will particularly focus on individuals experiencing homelessness.  

“Previously, the option was to just leave someone how they were on the street or arrest someone, and that is just not the right solution for so many people that are struggling in New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury and, frankly, in cities around the nation,” Mayor Justin Elicker said at the opening. “Continuum stepped up as a team that was willing to put the resources, the expertise and, most importantly, the compassion behind helping the people in our community.”

The REST Center aims to act as an alternative to unnecessary emergency room visits or arrests, offering loungers and beds, accepting referrals from police and first responders and allowing stays up to 23 hours. It is Connecticut’s first rapid evaluation, stabilization and treatment center and can hold up to ten individuals at a time. 

In 2022, New Haven launched COMPASS, a community-based initiative that supports individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crises. It has become a support network for New Haven first responders, who often refer individuals to COMPASS instead of taking them into custody or emergency rooms. 

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, John Labieniec, vice president of acute and forensic services for Continuum, shared an anecdote about an individual who benefited from the services REST will provide in collaboration with COMPASS.

A passenger missed their flight at the New Haven Tweed airport due to a psychiatric emergency and was subsequently stranded in New Haven, Labieniec said. After local police called COMPASS, the individual was picked up, evaluated and given a place to stay until catching the next day’s flight out of New Haven.

“This just really highlights how important the work is here, and how important it is that we are coming together so people can have a tool and be treated like a human being,” he said.

The facility has also dedicated six beds to patients awaiting placement in a longer-term facility. 

Continuum, which operates the REST Center, is a New Haven-based organization that provides group homes, supported and independent living programs, crisis and respite services and residential case management programs for adults diagnosed with mental illness or severe developmental and intellectual disabilities. The organization runs over 50 programs around Connecticut.

The REST Center will provide patients with any basic needs, as well as brief medical and psychiatric assessments, mental health evaluations, referrals to detox and access to other supported living services. It is staffed by clinicians, case managers, peer counselors and nurses who will perform professional evaluations and help connect individuals to further services, depending on each patient’s needs. 

“The [REST] program integrates the Continuum expertise and skills to provide a new level of care that will streamline psychiatric assessment and evaluations in a community-based setting, thereby transforming how mental health crises are managed without burdening our first responders or our hospital emergency departments,” Jim Farrales, president and CEO of Continuum, said.

New Haven assisted Continuum with the necessary funding to purchase and renovate the facility housing the REST Center. The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is providing funding to help with Continuum’s operational costs of the REST Center. 

The REST Center is located at 310 Winthrop Ave.