- December 13, 2025
Flagler County Commissioners, administrators and SMA Healthcare leaders celebrated the groundbreaking for a future integrated stabilization unit facility. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County Commissioners, administrators and SMA Healthcare leaders celebrated the groundbreaking for a future integrated stabilization unit facility. Photo by Sierra Williams
Commission Chair Leann Pennington at the SMA Healthcare facility groundbreaking. Photo by Sierra Williams
Andrew Williams, SMA Healthcare's vice president of Flagler County services. Photo by Sierra Williams
SMA Healthcare CEO Ivan Cossini. Photo by Sierra Williams
County Administrator Heidi Petito is also on the SMA Healthcare Foundation's board. Photo by Sierra Williams
With no crisis receiving center in its jurisdiction, Flagler County residents in crisis have historically had to travel outside of the county for care when it comes to mental health and substance abuse.
That changes today, said Andrew Williams, SMA Healthcare's vice president of Flagler County services.
“This facility completes the continuum of care here in Flagler County,” Williams said. “Prevention, crisis, outpatient, residential and now stabilization, all within one unified system of care.”
The Flagler County Commission and SMA Healthcare leaders broke ground on a future integrated stabilization unit and men’s residential facility on Nov. 18, to be located at 101 Old Haw Creek Road. The facility will be over 23,000 square feet in size and 48 beds in total: 20 for the integrated stabilization unit and 28 for the men’s residential facility.
The facility will function as a 24/7 access point for both law enforcement and the public. According to data from SMA, the Florida's Northeast region has the second highest involuntary assessment rate, at 8.29 per capita, or over 23,000 people in 2024-2025.
Flagler alone has had over 4,000 involuntary assessments in the past five years, double the state's average. The county also has an average suicide rate of 18.72 per capita, 25% higher than the state's average, and an average accidental drug overdose rate that is 20% higher than the state's average, according to SMA's data.
“Today, we're not just breaking ground on a building. We're building a place where healing begins and hope takes root,” Williams said.
SMA Healthcare is a nonprofit that provides comprehensive services for individuals in need of mental health services as well as substance abuse services across multiple counties in Northeast Florida. In Flagler County, those services include a Crisis Triage and Treatment Unit, the Mobile Crisis Response Team, and primary care services.
The future crisis stabilization unit, and a new men’s residential unit, is the result of a public-private partnership between Flagler County and SMA Healthcare. Flagler County requested and received $10 million in legislative appropriations funding to help build the crisis unit and residential program while SMA Healthcare contributed an additional $4 million to the project. The land the facility is being built on is owned by the county.
“Expanding access to behavioral health services in Flagler County is critical,” Commission Chair Leann Pennington said. “Today, residents who need detox services or crisis intervention often have to lead this county to receive it. That distance creates barriers at a time when individuals and families are already in crisis.”
The services will be available to all those in need, regardless of their ability to pay, Pennington said.
“This facility represents hope access and a stronger behavioral health safety net for our community,” she said.
SMA Healthcare CEO Ivan Cosimi said the new facility is just the first step. After it is built, he said, the next step will be getting “all the services funded in a manner that we want to bring to the community.”
“The SMA mission is transforming lives through exceptional substance use, mental health and primary care services,” Cosimi said. “We're going to do that right here.”
Editor's note: This story was updated on Nov. 19 at 7:05 p.m. with the correct spelling of Ivan Cosimi's name.
