A new Community Services Board facility is in the works in Augusta County that will provide immediate treatment for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
The Valley Recovery and Assessment Center, slated to open in Fishersville in the fall of 2027, will be open around the clock to provide behavioral health treatment to people in crisis. On Monday, first responders, healthcare providers, and service agency leaders gathered at Augusta Health to celebrate the project launch. Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other speakers attended via video conference due to the snow. This new crisis receiving center is funded in part by the governor's "Right Help, Right Now" initiative.
Kimberly McClanahan, executive director of the Valley Community Services Board, explained that the facility will have two main sections – each with room for 16 patients.
KIMBERLY MCCLANAHAN: A CRC, or crisis receiving center, is a place where somebody can go for 23 hours and regroup, essentially. …. It's possible that within that 23 hours, that they can go home. If they can't, then they could step up to the crisis stabilization unit or detox …. where, in general you're going to stay maybe five to seven days, although you could stay up to 15.
She said this place will feel very different than going to the emergency department.
MCCLANAHAN: Augusta Health – the ED is great – but it's not made for mental health. … So it will be, very much, a homier experience. They will get mental health professionals immediately.
Additionally, law enforcement officers transporting people under a temporary detention order, or TDO, can bring them to the center to get treatment right away, instead of sitting with them at an ED for hours until they're admitted somewhere.
John Sandy, the CSB's director of finance, said the total cost of the project is about $19.7 million. About 82% of that will come from the state, and 12% from their member localities – Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta and Highland counties.
JOHN SANDY: It's all cash. So it's pay as you go – no lending, no debt, no obligations for any of the residents of the catchment area or the taxpayers.
Funding from the state includes a construction grant for $9.6 million and an ongoing crisis recovery grant. The CSB is also pitching in a $1.5 million reserve fund to the project.
