History

1948 - The organization now known as Apalachee Center was first organized in Leon County as the "Institute of Human Relations", and located in offices provided by the Leon County Board of County Commissioners.

1954 - The first full-time administrator was hired for the Institute.

1955 - 1965 - the program became commonly known as the Leon County Mental Health Clinic.

1966 - A group of Tallahassee civic leaders incorporated the clinic as the Leon County Mental Health Center, a non-profit community agency serving Leon County, governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.

1972 - With federal funding, the Center began to expand services to Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, and Wakulla Counties. The Center's name was officially changed to Apalachee Community Mental Health Services, Inc. to better reflect the organization’s mission to serve all eight counties. The name honors the proud Apalachee nation that once ruled this region.

1973-1980 Apalachee continued to expand, and opens one of the first Crisis Stabilization Units (CSU)established in the state.

1981 – Apalachee Center’s commitment to providing quality care and treatment led to voluntary pursuit of accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. Agency-wide accreditation was received in March of and has been continually maintained ever since.

1981-2000 - Apalachee opened a 24-bed freestanding psychiatric hospital (Eastside Psychiatric Hospital), a chemical dependency Detox unit, a variety of residential programs, and expanded the availability of outpatient and in-school services available across its 5500-square mile catchment area. This expansion has included the construction of dedicated outpatient facilities in the major population seats of each of Apalachee’s eight Counties.

2000-2008 - Apalachee continued to open new services for the region, including: the FACT (Assertive Community Treatment) team; the PATH Homeless Project a program providing outreach, case management and psychiatric services to homeless persons with a mental illness; a Short-term Residential Treatment (SRT) facility to provide a medium term alternative to state hospitalization; Project SAFE which provides in-home community based wrap-around services for children and adolescents at risk of psychiatric hospitalization; and, a 34-bed Residential Competency Restoration program.

2008-present –Apalachee began to focus on the development of new partnerships with other area organizations. Apalachee reinvigorated its intern training program, training up to 40 students annually from Florida State and Florida A&M University graduate programs in psychology, nursing and social work, and becoming a major teaching hospital site for Florida State College of Medicine. Apalachee also began a partnership with Florida A&M University to provide inpatient pharmacy services and to serve as a training site for pharmacy interns. Apalachee Center developed integrated service delivery sites with DISC Village substance abuse agency across the catchment area. The groundbreaking Bond Apalachee Wellness Integration Center (BAWIC) partnership garnered national recognition and awards, by providing integrated psychiatric and physical healthcare both at Bond Center, and Apalachee Center’s inpatient units and Leon County Outpatient Clinic. In 2010, Apalachee Center completed a major hospital renovation and expansion, thoroughly renovating the Crisis Stabilization Unit and Short Term Residential unit, and opening 22 new beds in a completely new Eastside Psychiatric facility, which included the state’s first acute inpatient geropsychiatric unit.