RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ) – Governor Glenn Youngkin has pledged to make mental health care a priority of his administration.
On Wednesday afternoon, he will hold a news conference to outline how he plans to redesign the state’s behavioral health system.
Virginia’s Secretary of Heath and Human Resources addressed the issue during a meeting of the state’s Behavioral Health Commission Tuesday afternoon.
He didn’t outline specifics, but described a comprehensive plan that will be implemented over three years.
Too often, John Littel said, Virginia has played “whack-a-mole,” attempting to address an immediate crisis, only to see another problem pop up somewhere else.
“And so, rather than saying we’re going to put all of our efforts in one thing, we say we’re going to do some things this year, some things next year and some things the following year across the board to really try to lift up the entire continuum of care,” Littel told lawmakers.
The details will wait until the governor’s announcement, but Littel said the proposals are designed to ensure same day care, relieve the burden on law enforcement, develop more capacity thoughout the system, provide targeted support for substance use disorder, make the behavioral health workforce a priority, and identify innovations and best practices.
Littel also offered an update on the study of Catawba Hospital, that considered transforming the facility into a state-of-the-art campus for substance abuse treatment and recovery services.
He didn’t provide the results, but offered some hints.
“I do think that when we think about substance use treatment, the short answer for that is we just don’t have enough beds,” Littel said. “And to have facilities all around where we have a lot of excess space and perhaps facilities that can be useful, it does create an opportunity for us to use those in a meaningful way.”
We’ll be getting a lot more information in the next 48 hours.
Youngkin will present his plan for Virginia’s behavioral health system in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
He will present a broad look at his budget on Thursday. And that’s also when we expect to see the release of the Catawba Hospital study.
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