Virginia’s first Youth Crisis Receiving Center opens in Henrico

When children or teens experience a mental health crisis, often the first place they go is a crowded hospital emergency room, where they wait hours until receiving care. Now, Henrico will have a space dedicated for youngsters who need immediate mental health services.

The Youth Crisis Receiving Center opened Feb. 29 with a ribbon-cutting held by Henrico County officials and leaders from St. Joseph’s Villa, a children’s nonprofit that provides health services and other supports.

The facility will have counselors, therapists, and registered nurses on site to conduct assessments, meet with family members, and determine next steps in care. Children ages 7 to 17 in the Central Virginia region can receive services.

The center is the first of its kind in Virginia – a space specifically designed for youth mental health – and state leaders hope to establish more youth crisis centers across the commonwealth, said Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Commissioner Nelson Smith.

Instead of families having to wait days for their children to receive appropriate medical care for active mental health crises, youngsters can receive immediate attention from mental health professionals, Smith said.

“Virginians, kids, they don’t know where to go,” he said. “They have no access to behavioral healthcare, it’s kind of a nebulous thing unless you know someone. So in front of you, I want you to visualize families walking in here…Now we have a place for kids, our children, to go.”

Henrico County and St. Joseph’s Villa began constructing the $1 million building, which was funded by the VA DBHDS, in April of 2023. The 1,800-square-foot facility has a “calming” room, an assessment room, two therapy rooms, ligature-resistant fixtures, and a designated area for families.

Smith is hopeful that the new center will lead to a major shift in how the state addresses youth mental health crises.

“It provides a safe haven, a safe place for families to go,” he said. “They come to places like this where they will receive treatment, dignity. So this is a multipronged approach and a shift in how we treat our individuals with mental health care crisis in the commonwealth.”

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When the center begins operating later this month, it will provide 24-hour service from St. Joseph’s staff. Under state law, youngsters and their families can stay as long as 23 hours at the center.

The 23-hour timeframe allows providers to conduct a variety of clinical and psychiatric assessments, suicide risk evaluations, and drug screenings, according to St. Joseph’s Director of Clinical Services Linda Saltonstall. The main focus will be determining next steps for the youth’s care after the 23 hours is up.

In instances in which a child is cleared to go home, staff members will help create a “safety plan” – most likely with the youth’s family present – and connect them with community service providers. In cases in which the child needs more care, staffers could refer them to St. Joseph’s Crisis Stabilization Unit, a mental health facility just next door that serves individuals for as long as 15 days, or a hospital.

However, Saltonstall believes the center will help reduce hospitalizations for mental health crises.

“There’s two primary goals: we’re diverting hospitalization and preventing kids from having to sit and just wait in the emergency room,” she said.

The youth center will almost always contact and work with family members, Saltonstall said, but when it comes to situations where a youth’s home is not a safe place, providers will coordinate with Child Protective Services.

The center also is preparing to handle other unpredictable or more complicated situations, Saltonstall said, such as different family situations or relationships.

“We just don’t know, because if kids come walk in, we’re going to have to try and reach out to their families,” she said. “We may get them, we may not. We’ve had to brainstorm any kind of multiple different scenarios. But I know the breadth of our scenarios – I know we haven’t thought of some.”

St. Joseph’s staff also met with local law enforcement to encourage them to contact the center when they come in contact with youth experiencing a mental health or behavioral crisis.

The Youth Crisis Receiving Center is one of just a few facilities in the United States that provide adolescents with mental health crisis services, Saltonstall said. She was able to find only six in the nation and all were open only to young adults 16 and older.

But a large number of Virginia youth desperately need more mental healthcare, Saltonstall said.

Emergency room visits for suicidal thoughts, self-harm, or suicide attempts among Virginia youngsters ages 9-18 more than doubled from 2016-2021, according to Virginia Department of Health data.

“The need for accessible, youth-specific emergency mental and behavioral health care is urgent,” St. Joseph’s CEO Jenny Friar said. “It’s scary and it’s brave to venture into new programs and new modes of treatment, but we know and we see here everyday in the work we do that our children are worth it – each and every one of them.”

Henrico County officials hope to continue to address youth mental health with a new initiative coming from the county government soon, according to Fairfield Supervisor Roscoe Cooper III.

“The Crisis Receiving Center demonstrates Henrico County’s commitment to the mental health care of our young people, and that commitment certainly does not stop here,” he said. “We soon will announce a new initiative that further supports the needs of our children and our youth. For now, I will simply say, stay tuned.”

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.