This week the Jefferson, Blount, St. Clair (JBS) Mental Health Authority in Birmingham announced they would be naming their new mental health crisis center after Dr. Richard Craig.

According to a press release from JBS, Craig is a former JBS executive director and a longtime advocate for the mental health community who is credited with the creation of the meals, observation, and medication (MOM) apartment program now used statewide to help those in rehabilitative group homes transition to independent living by ensuring they receive medications and meals consistently.

The press release added that Craig also received the NAMI Alabama Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 and the annual Alabama Institute for Recovery H.O.P.E. Award in 2011, which is given to an individual or organization for their statewide efforts to unify and benefit various stakeholders in the mental illness arena.

“Throughout his 23-year tenure at JBS, Dr. Craig’s tremendous leadership and enthusiasm for implementing new mental health services has positively impacted countless individuals and families across the state,” said current JBS Executive Director Jim Crego in the press release. “We look forward to continuing the great legacy he has built in the mental health care sector through the opening of the Craig Crisis Care Center.”

Craig said places like the crisis care center are intended to divert those having mental illness crises away from police action and possible incarceration into a treatment facility instead.