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Following the success of Virginia’s Right Help, Right Now behavioral health initiative, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced a $500 million investment in the state’s mental health programs.
A recent Friday started with crises, as so many days do for the mental health workers who strive to keep some of Virginia's most vulnerable people in their homes, instead of in overcrowded state mental hospitals.
The nine hospitals in the system increasingly find themselves short on beds and staff, with seven of the hospitals routinely exceeding 95 percent bed capacity. At least 20 percent of staff in the system did not believe their facility was a safe space for patients.
"These facilities are some of the most physically dangerous work environments in all of state government," states the 159-page report on Virginia's psychiatric hospitals, which was issued this week by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
On Monday afternoon, the auditing body of the general assembly recommended sweeping reforms to Virginia psychiatric hospitals, including shutting down the state’s lone psychiatric hospital for children.