Construction on a comprehensive mental health and substance abuse crisis treatment center began with a groundbreaking ceremony in Bowling Green Monday morning.
Community leaders gathered to celebrate the Anchor Project, a multi-pronged approach to handling the challenges of substance abuse and mental health crises, homelessness, drug rehabilitation services, and workforce training.
While housed in Bowling Green, the center will be a regional hub for the 10-county Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) region.
The $23 million project is being funded largely by state funds appropriated by the Kentucky General Assembly and has been planned in recent years by a 30-member committee made up of law enforcement, mental health, and addiction services professionals, as well as elected officials at the local, state and federal level.
The land where the center will be located was donated by LifeSkills, a regional provider of mental health, addiction, and crisis intervention services. Many of the 88 staff members within the complex will also be LifeSkills employees.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, LifeSkills president and CEO Joe Dan Beavers credited LifeSkills director of community development, Melanie Watts, with the concept of the Anchor Project around 20 years ago.
“She really is the reason that I know anything about this. Our history goes back to her time at the Bowling Green Police Department and really being instrumental in bringing a crisis intervention team training program to this community, and at the time, it was one of the few police departments in the Commonwealth to be CIT trained,” Beavers said.
More than a decade later, Watts introduced Beavers and a group of community leaders to the Mental Health Cooperative in Nashville, an organization that created a multi-faceted approach to mental health crisis intervention services.
“You think you know what you’re doing, and you do well, then you see something that really changes your perspective. And once I saw that, once I set foot in that building, I knew that what we were doing wasn’t adequate and wouldn’t be adequate moving forward,” Beavers said.
Watts said the final vision of the Anchor Project exceeds her own expectations, incorporating addiction services in addition to the mental healthcare found at the Nashville site. The 36,000 square foot facility will be located near LifeSkills headquarters on Suwannee Trail Road in Bowling Green, within walking distance of Fairview Medical Center, a Greenview Hospital emergency room, and a hub of healthcare services near Lover’s Lane.
“I think it’s better than what I had envisioned because we’re adding that substance use component to it. So when someone walks through the door, we can catch them, if you will in their worst moment. We can detox them, we can put them in treatment if needed, or if there’s no substance use we can treat that as well just for the crisis part. But it’s about stabilizing people, it’s about putting our arms wide open and embracing them as they come in,” Watts said.
The project operates in three phases, beginning with the Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) that opened in 2024. That partnership is a regional collaboration for mental health resources, assisting cities and counties with Opioid Abatement funds and connecting those in need with prevention, treatment, recovery, and care support.
While the office exists on the state level, their office within the Anchor Project facility is dependent on the project’s completion.
Phase two of the project encompasses the mental health crisis intake center, offering immediate mental health crisis support as well as 24/7 access to professional assessments and care. That aspect of the project will partner with local law enforcement for transfers and referrals.
Phase three includes the construction of the Life Learning Center, a long-term program to rebuild lives after addiction or mental health recovery. Programs will include life skill training, education, and job readiness through a recovery to workforce training program.
A shifting mental health philosophy
Anchor Project committee members highlighted an ongoing shift in the way that mental health and addiction are handled by law enforcement. Until very recently, they say mental illness and addiction were treated as issues of crime rather than healthcare.
Bowling Green Police Chief Michael Delaney estimated at the groundbreaking ceremony that the city’s police department responds to roughly 900 calls per year related to mental health or substance abuse crises. Warren County Jailer Stephen Harmon estimated that at least 80% of inmates lodged at the jail suffer from mental health problems or addiction.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that nearly 40% of inmates nationwide were jailed for mental illness, or for incidents related to a mental health crisis.
“For so long, we have put our people that are going through mental health crises, we've put the people who are going through alcohol and drug crises in jail, said state Rep. Kevin Jackson of Bowling Green “We’ve warehoused them. And what good has that done us? Now if they commit heinous crimes, yes they should be there. But for those people that are just suffering through a crisis caused by either alcohol or mental health, we need to get those people help. These are good people, they just have an addiction problem, they have a mental health problem, they have families just like you and I do. They deserve an opportunity to get better.”
Watts said she began recognizing a larger systemic issue when she served with the Bowling Green Police Department, and began trying to enact change then.
“I was looking at it from a different perspective, from the law enforcement perspective and just saying, ‘This is not the way that I want my children to be treated if they have a mental health issue or crisis, much less adults. I think we can do better. There’s always, I think we can do better,” Watts said.
Community leaders expect to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new facility in fall of 2026.
