Two years after it started exploring the idea, the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) is starting to make progress on establishing a regional youth mental health facility.
The new treatment center for teens could become operational in Chantilly early next year, the CSB says.
Now called the Northern Virginia Adolescent Treatment Center, the facility will be run by Northern Virginia Behavioral Health LLC, an affiliate of the Tennessee-based behavioral health facilities operator Acadia Healthcare.
Fairfax County awarded a contract to Acadia in April that will allow the provider to operate the center through March 31, 2030, with an option for one five-year renewal. The agreement’s budget provides $4.5 million to cover operating and personnel expenses for the first year of the program and over $3.8 million for all subsequent years, according to county documents.
Located on the Tim Harmon campus at 4213 Walney Road, where the CSB already has a Fairfax Detox Center that serves adults, the youth program will start off with 16 beds, but could expand when more space is available.
“This will be a 16-bed residential facility that offers medically managed acute withdrawal (detox), [substance use disorder] residential, and residential crisis stabilization services to adolescents aged 13-17,” a CSB spokesperson told FFXnow by email. “The program hopes to expand to also offer 23-hour crisis stabilization services when more space is available.”
The CSB began looking at setting up a facility to provide detox, substance abuse and mental health crisis services to teens across Northern Virginia in response to a shortage of available beds at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton, the state’s lone youth psychiatric hospital.
A December 2023 report commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly recommended that the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) shut down the Staunton hospital due to safety and staffing issues.
While there are some local private hospitals that accept adolescent patients, CSB Executive Director Daryl Washington told FFXnow in 2023 that, in the previous fiscal year, 332 kids in Northern Virginia had to wait eight hours or longer for a bed. The county also prefers to get youth access to services close to home when possible, he noted.
In August 2023, Virginia’s first non-hospital youth crisis center opened in Wythe County, providing 12 beds for people aged 5 to 17 who are experiencing substance use or mental health challenges.
The Northern Virginia center is similarly envisioned as an alternative to a hospital setting, according to a county document supporting its request for contract proposals:
There are some local inpatient psychiatric hospitals who will provide detox, but only if individuals meet criteria for inpatient hospitalization. Further, our region does not have anything less restrictive than inpatient hospitalization for youth who are in crisis. The Region very much wanted to develop this level of service as a resource for youth who present in crisis – either a primary [substance use disorder] crisis, or a primary behavioral health crisis, and not be turned away based on not meeting very narrowly defined criteria.
The county stated that the winning contractor should be able to provide services ranging in intensity from “highly structured,” 24-hour psychiatric care to short-term residential assessments and interventions. If the funding and space is available, 23-hour crisis stabilization services — where individuals are monitored and assessed for a period to determine what care they need — could be added.
The facility will primarily serve clients in DBHDS’ Region 2, which essentially covers Northern Virginia. In addition to the Fairfax-Falls Church CSB, that includes Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William counties as well as Alexandria City.
Noting that the state’s regional office will coordinate logistics for the program, the CSB spokesperson says the plan is still “in the early stages of development,” but the hope is to see operations start in the first half of 2026.
Photo via Google Maps
