In 2023, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors allocated $15 million to the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Service Board to construct or renovate a crisis receiving center for youth behavioral health emergencies.
After more than a year, however, Fairfax has yet to pick a location – the next step to getting the center operational.
VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement), a grassroots group of northern Virginia faith leaders, is trying to change that.
According to the Psychiatric Clinics journal, crisis receiving centers in the United States doubled between 2022 and 2023. They are a relatively recent kind of behavioral health facility that provides specialized care for psychiatric emergencies – a constructive alternative to emergency rooms and jails, said the Rev. Kenneth Nixon, a senior organizer for VOICE and pastor of First Baptist Church in Manassas.
Youth crisis receiving centers are staffed with professionals trained to deal with the unique issues facing teens, such as higher rates of impulsivity.
Becca Messman, a VOICE clergy leader and pastor of Burke Presbyterian Church, said that while people can find urgent behavioral healthcare in the region, there is a desperate need for Fairfax youth.
“Numerous families cannot find a space in local crisis care centers and then are driving an hour, two hours, three hours,” she said. “Or they were told, ‘We will be able to respond to this emergency in a couple of months.’ And that means the family is in limbo.”
Messman said she even heard of a family who traveled to Michigan for their child’s behavioral health emergency.
In early October, VOICE hosted a Behavioral Health Assembly at Fairfax High School to highlight the need for both a youth crisis receiving center and increased access to Naloxone for opioid overdoses. Nearly 500 VOICE members, elected officials and allies attended.
VOICE held the assembly because, Nixon said, it’s important for the county to take action soon instead of leaving budget funds unused.
“The concern is, if you stay in the [budget] cycle, slowly the $15 million starts to trickle away and disappear,” Nixon said.
Daryl Washington, executive director of the Community Service Board, said he appreciates the work VOICE has been doing to keep the crisis receiving center salient. He has been searching for locations, but there are logistical challenges – such as an affordable central location.
“We’re looking for… a stand-alone building,” he said. “We’re looking for something that’s going to be big enough to serve the need but not so big that we’re overpaying.”
The board is also struggling to find a vendor to operate the center, Washington said. It recently put out its third request for proposal, as the two prior ones failed.
Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said this is indicative of a statewide problem with mental health staffing.
“It is a profession that has been historically underpaid, and the management of violent people in mental health crisis has become more challenging,” she said. “Virginia is trying to address the problem, but it is a large workforce issue that will be expensive to solve.”
Nixon said the problem might also come down to bureaucracy.
Virginia is one of the toughest states to get licensed and approved for mental healthcare, he said. Additionally, the state hasn’t finished its licensure system for crisis receiving centers. This leaves providers operating under waivers and pilot programs, which come with their own red tape.
However, Nixon said, these problems aren’t insurmountable – Connections Health runs a treatment center for adults in Chantilly and is serving as the vendor for Prince William County’s upcoming crisis receiving center for youth and adults.
Washington said that he’s expanding the current RFP search. He’s hopeful that once a location is found, the Board of Supervisors will vote to approve its purchase.
Meanwhile, VOICE will continue meeting with Fairfax officials and advocating for the youth crisis receiving center.
“Behavioral health is not necessarily top-of-mind [for local politicians],” Nixon said. “It requires a little extra effort and pressure to make sure that they’re doing the right thing in terms of bringing these facilities online.”
This article was written by FFXnow’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
