Southwest Virginia is addressing mental health emergencies with two new facilities

ROANOKE, Va. – Two crisis centers, designed to help anyone in a mental health emergency or crisis, are coming to Southwest Virginia in 2025.

Blue Ridge Behavioral Health is opening one in Hollins. It will be open 24 hours a day for anyone who voluntarily seeks help and someone can stay at the center for up to 23 hours.

People can come in as walk-ins and there will be about 12 beds available.

Marcus Alert Director of Blue Ridge Behavioral Health Mandy Lee said the center is opening as behavioral health caseloads have increased in recent decades.

“It becomes that people need support. People need places they can go with trained professionals who can help them in times of need. Often we see people on their worst day and we want to be able to provide that support and meet their needs,” said Lee.

Lee also said it helps keep beds available in hospitals and provides someone with an alternative place to stay.

The new facility will allow on-duty officers to remove someone who has been determined by a court to go to a hospital because he or she poses a threat to themselves or others. This is known as an emergency detention order. Typically, officers must stay with that person until a hospital bed is available. However, in the new facility, an on-duty officer can transfer custody of that person to an off-duty officer trained to work with people in a behavioral health crisis.

The Marcus alert The unit will also be present when the new center opens in 2025. Lee said this is the state’s response to an officer-involved shooting in the Richmond area. She said the goal of Marcus Alert is to get a behavioral health response to a behavioral health crisis. Lee said there are several components.

“One of those is forwarding calls from 911 to 988, and if the caller calls 911 today, those dispatchers can identify their need based on a four-tier system. It is a four-level emergency triage. They can direct certain callers to 988, where they can speak to a doctor who can meet their needs. No police officer is sent, so the response really corresponds to the person’s need,” Lee said.

She said if that person needs a personalized response, they can send a police officer and a co-response therapist together so they can give that person the best response.

Horizon Behavioral will also open a crisis shelter for the Lynchburg area in 2025.

Horizon Behavioral Health is currently serving approximately 12,000 people this year and some of its services include case management and outpatient therapy.

When the new center opens next year, anyone experiencing a mental health emergency or crisis can be monitored for up to 23 hours.

Some of the services include drug and alcohol detox and mental health evaluations.

Horizon said the new crisis shelter will be a 16-bed facility and expects it will serve thousands of people.

“We want to make sure that we provide our community with the tools and assistance that they need, and I think we are doing that. I think we’re doing that the best we can and we want to make sure our community gets the services they need,” said Melissa Lucy, CEO of Horizon Behavioral Health.

This new crisis shelter also allows an on-duty officer to transfer custody of someone with a protective order to an off-duty officer trained to work with people in a behavioral health crisis.

Virginia Senator Mark Peake was at Horizon last week to see where they were in the process with the new center.

Peake said this will help put officers back on the streets.

“If one or two of them are in hospital with psychiatric patients, there is no one to patrol the streets and when an emergency call comes in there are fewer people to respond and that can lead to delayed response times,” Peake said.

Horizon said the new crisis shelter will also help with Virginia’s shortage of hospital beds and allow people to stay in their home areas so families can visit them.