Center for Mental Health

The Center for Mental Health has been partnering to improve lives for 45 years. Originally, the North Central Community Mental Health Center was established in 1974 to serve the nine county region from Great Falls to the Hi-Line. This wheat farming region is often referred to as “The Golden Triangle,” so the Center became Golden Triangle Community Mental Health Center.

In 1997 the Center began providing services to the tri-county Area: Lewis & Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties. Meagher County was added in 2005. This addition expanded the total service area to 10 counties, and the Center now serves over 3,000 clients in Central Montana.

In Cascade County alone, the Center serves over 2,400 people. In Helena and the tri-county area, the Center serves more than 1,700. The Hi-Line’s “Frontier Counties” (less than 6 people per square mile) have outpatient offices in almost every county in Central MT. Community mental health centers were started nationwide during the deinstitutionalization movement in the 1960-70s to provide community-based services in order to live outside state hospitals. The institutional cost savings is remarkable when the census of the MT State Hospital went from 2,000 patients to less than 200. MT State Hospital is currently licensed for 189 beds but is unable to refuse patients even if the census is greater.