Later this month, members of the General Assembly will consider an effort some are calling a transformation of Virginia's behavioral health system.
When law enforcement officers have custody of a person in a mental health crisis, they often take them to a hospital and drop them off, even if the person in crisis has not yet been admitted. That was the conclusion of a recent report from a state watchdog agency, and now Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin says he wants to do something about it.
"We all know it. We are facing a behavioral health crisis across Virginia and across the United States," the governor says. "This crisis is present in our home, in schools and in our workplace and is especially acute in our young people."
He calls his proposal Right Help Right Now. It includes more than $100 million for things like new mobile crisis units and new crisis receiving centers. He also wants to increase pay for hard-to-fill jobs, which is a goal shared by Senator Creigh Deeds of Charlottesville — although they differ on the bottom line. Deeds says $100 million is needed just to staff up the community service boards.
"The bigger investment we need to make and we need to keep people out of crisis, and that means we have to invest in the people to provide services at the local level through the community services boards," says Deeds. "We've got to focus on preventing crises from occurring in the first place, and that's really how we save lives and save money over the long haul."
The new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are about to start considering the Republican governor's budget proposal and making their own suggestions about the amount of money that’s needed.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
