Clermont County residents will have a new place to turn during a mental health or substance use crisis starting in January 2027.

The county's Mental Health & Recovery Board is converting its headquarters at 2337 Clermont Center Drive in Batavia into a 24/7 Crisis Receiving Center, Dr. Lee Ann Watson, the board's executive director, told the Clermont County Board of Commissioners on Aug. 27.

The center will serve all adults who live in Clermont County or are physically in the county during a crisis. That includes residents in parts of the Loveland and Milford areas that fall within county lines.

A $1 million grant from the OneOhio Recovery Foundation is funding the project. The foundation distributes a share of Ohio's settlement funds from pharmaceutical companies tied to the opioid epidemic. Commissioners also accepted a separate $180,194 opioid settlement in September 2025, a portion of which was directed toward the crisis center, WCPO reported at the time.

"We found out during the opioid epidemic that people really needed immediate access to treatment," Watson told WCPO in a September 2025 report, when the settlement funding was first announced. "With the crisis receiving center, people can walk in 24/7 and have access to trained mental health professionals."

Watson has described the planned facility as functioning like an urgent care for behavioral health needs, covering both substance use and mental health concerns.

Watson and Denny Moell, the board's associate director, appeared before commissioners on Aug. 27 to accept a proclamation declaring September 2026 as National Recovery Month. Moell said the effects of mental health and substance use challenges often reach beyond the person struggling to their families, friends and the broader community.

The board, which has operated in Clermont County since 1969 and is funded in part by a local levy voters approved in 1981, contracts with agencies including Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, Child Focus and Clermont Recovery Center.

Anyone experiencing a crisis can reach the Clermont & Brown County Crisis Hotline at 513-528-7283 or call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The board has not announced a specific opening date or public event for the center's January launch.