Alva Review-Courier -

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Walkie talkies interrupt. Smartphones buzz with calls.

The women working at Kansas City's 3-month-old mental illness crisis center have too many desperate lines in the water for there to be any pause in the action — even during a staff meeting.

Beyond frosted windows, six people lie in beds or wander about the center's mental illness ward. Five more slump in various states of recovery in the alcohol detox ward. All of them have to be stabilized and out of here, sent somewhere, within 23 hours of their arrival.

So goes another morning at the new Kansas City Assessment an...