As the stigma around mental health, and addiction, begin to fade, we’re seeing more and more outreach from our county and state governments, which is amazing for anyone who suffers from these afflictions. A few weeks ago, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan announced the county’s plan to create a $3 million 24-hour mental health and substance abuse “crisis stabilization center” in a medical office complex adjacent to HealthAlliance in Kingston. The four-story 31,683-square-foot office building will also be the new headquarters for Ulster County’s Department of Mental Health.

According to the county, the facility will include trained social workers, nurses, and other medical personnel equipped to connect patients with the services they need. It’s billed as a one stop location for those with mental health and addiction issues. But therein lies the problem. While mental health and addiction are sometimes connected, consolidating them into one facility could do more harm than good.

The most superficial issue is, unfortunately, the stigma attached to addiction. The stereotype of the addict isn’t necessarily thrust upon someone who checks in for mental health, but a “fear of association” could be enough to deter someone from seeking mental health support in such a facility.

Another problem lies in the complexities of each condition. The “mental health” umbrella is vast, ranging from generalized anxiety conditions to severe, debilitating personality disorders. At the same time, people who have a psychological disorder or mental health condition can turn to drugs or alcohol in an attempt to dull or ignore their underlying mental health condition. And studies have shown that those with dual mental health and addiction diagnoses do benefit from a combined treatment.

But still, the majority of people with mental health issues do not have a substance abuse issue. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, of the 20.3 million adults with substance use disorders, 37.9 percent also had mental illnesses. And of the 42.1 million adults with mental illnesses, 18.2 percent also had a substance use disorder.

There is also some evidence that the “addiction as a disease model,” while useful in understanding an individual’s motivation, might overshadow some of the multi-layered issues that precede or even exacerbate addiction. We talked with a few people familiar with these services to hear their take. One person we spoke with made the point that most addicts probably don’t need to be put on anti-depressants or other mood-altering drugs, even if they are feeling depressed. Instead what they need is stability and continued support, housing, healthcare, help with job placement, someone to get them up on a routine, and encourage them when they feel down. They need to regain trust in themselves. Full support.

Someone suffering from a mental health condition needs all variety of things, too, but different ones. We spoke to another person who had experience with in-patient mental/health addiction services. She recalled feeling treated “like an addict,” which meant being asked a lot of questions about when and how often she took various drugs. Of course, some mental health drugs are abused, but others are needed for healthy brain function. But in combo facilities, it doesn’t matter which category you fall in to, you go through the same addiction screening process.

Typically, you’ll hear of two types of mental health treatments: cognitive behavior therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy. Both are “talk therapies” with different approaches, depending on the patient’s emotional state or disorder type. But sometimes a mixture of treatments works best. It takes time to find out what type of treatment will work. If someone is forced instead into an addiction screening, they may become discouraged, insular, feel out of place, like this isn’t the place to find help.

It’s also possible that, for cost-savings, the county decided to consolidate seemingly similar resources, kind of like putting together angioplasty and smoking cessation services.

We don’t know for sure just how consolidated this new crisis stabilization center will be, and whether it will be like other mental health/addiction combo centers that give a one-size-fits-all service. It’s too soon to tell. What we do have is a name, and an association: mental health and addition. And with that we could assume that, like many other such institutions, they will screen you to death for addiction before they even begin to explore your suicidal ideations. But let’s all hope that, particularly with the uptick in both of these issues, the people in charge will avoid the pitfalls of the past and rethink mental health services and addiction treatment centers to focus on the person rather than the problem.