Prince William County Receives Funding for Youth Component of the Crisis Receiving Center

During their meeting today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors budgeted, appropriated and allocated $2.1 million in ongoing funding from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, or DBHDS, to go toward the youth component of the county’s Crisis Receiving Center (CRC).

CRCs provide timely access to crisis services for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Diverting people in acute mental health crisis to CRCs can preempt hospitalizations and reduce the execution of temporary detention orders. CRCs offer short-term-crisis treatment for up to 23 hours, as well as residential crisis treatment for those needing a few days to address the crisis and can help divert people in mental crisis from the criminal justice system. 

At full build-out, the county’s CRC will have 16 recliners where people can remain for up to 23 hours for observation and 16 crisis stabilization beds for adults. It will also include eight recliners and eight beds for youth. While the full adult component was funded by the Board during the FY2023 Budget, the youth component was not funded due to budget constraints. The $2.1 million in funding from DBHDS will fund some recliners and beds for youth (the number to be determined based on the greatest need within our community), which will serve 14- to 18-year-olds in Greater Prince William and Region 2 areas who are experiencing mental crisis.

“We are very grateful to the state for recognizing the significant need for youth resources in our region,” said Prince William County Chair At-Large Ann Wheeler. “Too many times, people in mental health crisis end up in the criminal justice system or hospital emergency rooms when they should be receiving care. The new CRC will help save the lives of the young people in our community.”

The 2022 Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working conditions shows that one in 10 high school students has seriously contemplated suicide in the past year, while one in three has symptoms of recent clinical anxiety. In Prince William County, from July 2022 through December 2022, 17 youth meeting the criteria for temporary detention had to go outside of the NOVA region to receive help (NOVA Regional Utilization Review, December 2022).

“The mental health of our youth is so important to the overall health of our community,” said Potomac District Supervisor Andrea Bailey, who has championed the CRC project. “The funding from the state will help the planning and renovation needed for the opening of the youth component of the county’s CRC, which is critical in supporting our children and their families during times of mental crisis.”

In November 2022, the board awarded a contract to Connections, a nationally recognized leader in behavioral health crisis care, as the vendor-operator for the CRC. Connections will run both the adult and youth components of the CRC, housed separately but in the same building in the Gander Mountain building on Worth Avenue in Woodbridge. It is anticipated that the CRC will open by fall 2024.

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Media Contact: Rachel Johnson, Acting Communications Director
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