In a dedication ceremony Tuesday afternoon, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services opened a new space to house its Island Intervention Center.

The center has been operating as a unit for nearly a year, but had been housed in offices scattered throughout the Community Services campus in Oak Bluffs.

“The program will be so enhanced by this space,” said Community Services executive director Julie Fay. “We’re a very small clinic, we see a lot of people every day. The challenges that come to our door are many. We have an incredible group of clinicians that work day in and day out.”

The intervention center is described as a triage system, the first stop for someone experiencing mental health or substance abuse issues. It is designed to be an alternative to hospitalization, a place where someone suffering a behavioral health crisis can come to learn about and consider the range of options offered by Community Services and other Island organizations.

On hand for the dedication ceremony was Howard (Buddy) Baker-Smith, director of the Massachusetts Department of Health southeast region.

“It’s a credit to you all here,” Mr. Baker-Smith said. “You understand the solutions really are local. These are our families, these are our young people, these are our friends and loved ones, and this is where the solutions that are going to be most effective are going to be found.”

Island native David Araujo is the program director of the new intervention center.

“For me to be able to see Martha’s Vineyard Community Services evolve and grow as a program with regard to our new Island Intervention Center, it brings me great pride as an Islander to be able to be a part of it,” Mr. Araujo said.

The intervention center will house a new Suboxone clinic that will offer a medically assisted treatment therapy for opioid addiction.