South Carolina Mental Health Services Guide

Few private mental health providers are able to immediately serve people in crisis, while most state mental health systems, including South Carolina’s, have crisis response systems that can help people get mental health care quickly in an emergency. This usually makes public mental health services the best option if you’re having a mental health crisis and need help right away. The people who answer state or local crisis lines can provide caring attention and support as they help you determine the best response to a crisis, whether it’s inpatient treatment or an appointment with a counselor.

In general, community mental health centers (CMHCs) serve as alternative outpatient providers for people who lack the means to access outpatient mental health services in the private sector. In addition to offering affordable care, South Carolina CMHCs and clinics provide specialized and intensive services that either aren’t available anywhere else or that are hard to find in private clinics. These include services that help people with severe mental health conditions maintain a good quality of life in the community, such as case management and psychosocial rehabilitation.

For people who only need counseling, South Carolina CMHCs offer counseling services to anyone who has a mental health condition and who could potentially benefit from counseling. Availability of counseling and other services depends on each CMHC’s funding and staff at any given time.

South Carolina’s CMHCs do not have restrictive clinical eligibility criteria and are open to anyone who needs treatment for a mental health condition. Most South Carolina CMHCs accept private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also offer sliding-fee scales for people who do not have insurance.

People who are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare will need to use private insurance or pay out of pocket for CMHC services. South Carolina did not accept Medicaid expansion, so it is not possible to get Medicaid as a childless adult in South Carolina unless you have a disability. South Carolina does not have any state funding assistance programs other than Medicaid for people who need mental health care but does offer counseling for reduced fees at many state-licensed clinics and CMHCs. To find out how fees at your local CMHC compare to fees for private providers, you can call your local CMHC and ask what they charge.

While general access to public mental health care is not restricted in South Carolina, some specific state mental health services do have restrictive eligibility criteria. Only people who have a severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), or a mental health condition that impacts their level of functioning and puts them at risk of hospitalization, are eligible for case management in South Carolina. The only insurance plan that covers this service is Medicaid.

The best way to find out about your local CMHC or clinic in South Carolina is to call the program directly. You can also call the main number for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) at (803) 898-8581 or call the statewide crisis response line at (833) 364-2274. Some CMHCs have their own crisis lines, but the statewide crisis line works for all locations.

To find out which CMHCs and clinics serve your area, you can use one of the following directories or search tools on the SCDMH website:

• The Contact SCDMH page provides up-to-date contact information for SCDMH.
• You can find links to each CMHC’s webpage on SCDMH’s Mental Health Centers page.
• The SCDMH Mental Health Centers and Clinics Directory lists the phone number and address for each CMHC as well as what counties each facility serves.
• You can review a full listing of all CMHCs and satellite offices on this directory page.
• The SCDMH County Map shows the service area for each South Carolina CMHC.
• You can use the Locate a Clinic page to search for clinics or CMHCs using your zip code and get driving directions to the facility you choose.

For your convenience, you can also find contact information for all of the South Carolina CMHCs and affiliate clinics below.

In the 1960s, Americans started thinking differently about how to treat mental health conditions. New laws required state and local governments to establish community mental health programs as alternatives to institutionalization for people with serious mental illness. Many states’ public mental health programs trace their origins back to this period.

South Carolina was ahead of the curve. An innovator in the Southeast, South Carolina recognized the mental health needs of its citizens as far back as the 1700s and became the second state to establish publicly-funded mental health treatment in 1821. It built its first community-based outpatient mental health clinics in the 1920s and passed its own community mental health law in 1952, more than a decade before President John F. Kennedy signed the federal Community Mental Health Act in 1963.

Like many states, South Carolina fell behind in maintaining community mental health services after 1981, when federal laws moved mental health funding to a block grant system, and again in 2008 after the national recession. However, South Carolina has continued to innovate and has come up with creative solutions to address issues like the increasing use of hospital emergency departments for mental health services and the shrinking number of psychiatrists in the workforce. It established its successful emergency telepsychiatry program in 2007, which has made emergency mental health screenings more efficient and accessible across the state.

Mental health services in South Carolina are currently managed on the state and regional levels. The South Carolina Department of Mental Health (DMH) oversees the state’s regional mental health centers and inpatient facilities and also runs the state mental health crisis line. Licensed CMHCs and clinics are operated locally but administered centrally by DMH. The state system’s mission is to provide mental health services to anyone who needs treatment for a mental health condition, regardless of their ability to pay.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), only 44.5 percent of people in South Carolina who have mental health conditions get treatment for them. One reason for the care gap is that people aren’t aware of their options for affordable mental health care in South Carolina, including CMHCs and public clinics. You can help change these statistics by reaching out and using local mental health resources to get the care you need.