Greil Memorial Psychiatric Hospital will shut its doors as part of a nationwide move to put patients into community-based care.
The facility will stop taking patients by Aug. 17 and focus on placing its 62 residents elsewhere.
The state Department of Mental Health is working with the directors of three-community based health centers to increase their services ahead of the move. Department Commissioner Jim Reddoch says that patients who cannot be placed in a community setting will be taken to Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa.
Reddoch said preparations are also under way to close Searcy Hospital in Mount Vernon.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)