Montgomery County Officials to Give Project Update on Behavioral Health Diversion Center on Wednesday, Oct. 29 in Rockville

For Immediate Release: Monday, October 6, 2025

Montgomery County officials will host a project update on the planned "Diversion Center" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the Leggett Executive Office Building (LEOB) auditorium in Rockville. The meeting will also be accessible virtually via Microsoft TEAMS at Diversion Center Project Update. The center, which will be located on Seven Locks Road in Rockville, will treat individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

The LEOB is located at 101 Monroe St. in Rockville. The auditorium is on the lobby level of the building.

 County officials participating in the Oct. 29 meeting will include: 

• Earl Stoddard, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Office of the County Executive
• Monica Martin, Chief, Behavioral Health and Crisis Services, Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
• Hamid Omidvar, Chief, Division of Building Design and Construction, Department of General Services

The County is opening the diversion center to help reduce the use of emergency rooms and detention centers. The center will be available to individuals in crisis who are dropped off by emergency medical technicians or police, persons transferred from hospitals, and staff from the DHHS Mobile Crisis & Outreach Teams. A team of multidisciplinary professionals will staff the center, including nurses, licensed mental health and addiction professionals, peer specialists, and resource navigators.

The center will provide a variety of behavioral health services, including triage, crisis stabilization, and warm hand-off referrals to appropriate services. These services are designed to stabilize individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis during the first hours and up to three days. The center will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

The County has held annual project updates since October 2022, with the most recent update occurring on May 21, 2024. A Stakeholder Engagement team, made up of individuals from the neighboring community, the recovery community, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of General Services, and the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, has met a dozen times over the last two years to discuss and develop strategies to address community, provider, and advocate concerns.

A recording of the upcoming meeting will be made available for a limited time on the Teams LIVE link, Diversion Center Project Update.

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Release ID: 25-369
Media Contact: Mary Anderson 3015297669
Categories: Health, Public Safety