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Another Break in the Safety Net State Mental Health Bed Shortage Felt in Loudoun
BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ
JULY 22, 2021
Supervisors Vote to Write Union Ordinance BY RENSS GREENE
krodriguez@loudounnow.com
A recent decision by the state’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to close admission at five of the commonwealth’s eight adult psychiatric hospitals is further straining a mental health system already bursting at its seams. In defending her decision, Commissioner Alison Land cited inadequate staffing levels at the affected hospitals. This is causing potentially unsafe conditions for both staff members and patients at a time when assaults by patients against staff or fellow patients are already high. More than 60 serious injuries of patients and staff have been reported since July 1, and state facilities are averaging 4.5 incidents or injuries a day, Land wrote. The department reports 1,547 direct patient support staff vacancies out of 5,500 positions across the eight facilities, with more than 100 staff resignations just since the month began. And although it remains open to admissions, the only state psychiatric facility for children, the Commonwealth Center for Children & Adolescents in Staunton, can only safely operate 18 of its 48 beds, according to Land. Her letter to healthcare partners and providers asks for all private beds in hospitals and healthcare facilities to be opened to accept patients under temporary detention orders, when a determination has been made that the individual is a danger to themselves or others. A temporary detention order, signed by a magistrate, requires the individual to receive immediate hospitalization for further evaluation and stabilization, on an involuntary basis, until
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rgreene@loudounnow.com
Hayley Milon Bour/Loudoun Now
Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Devin Mickens is assigned to the agency’s new C.A.R.E. team, a pilot program to help members of the community struggling with mental illness and drug addiction.
a commitment hearing can be arranged to determine any future treatment needs. In most cases, such a hearing is required to take place within 72 hours. State and private facilities were already facing a strain on staffing. The state’s adult mental health facilities were averaging more than 90% utilization, according to a July 15 presentation to the state’s Joint Committee to Study Mental Health Services in the Commonwealth in the 21st Century, more often referred to as the Deeds Commission. The three facilities that remain open, including the closest state facility to Loudoun, the Northern Virginia Mental
Health Institute in Fairfax, are averaging 95% occupancy. In Loudoun, licensed and staffed beds to accommodate patients receiving mental health services are at a premium. Currently, only Inova Behavioral Health Services at the hospital’s Cornwall campus in downtown Leesburg has mental health beds for adults, at a total of 22. Nearby, North Spring Behavioral Services provides inpatient mental health treatment for teens and adolescents. “We’re at 100% capacity,” Dr. Linda MENTAL HEALTH continues on page 31
Supervisors have taken another vote to shape an almost-certain future ordinance in Loudoun opening the door to collective bargaining for county employees. Supervisor voted 6-3 along party lines Tuesday night to support a local law that will set the county government up to recognize and bargain with union representatives, the stronger of the two options up for consideration. The other option, meet-andconfer, would involve nonbinding discussions with unions. They also decided that within bargaining units—employees that are eligible to negotiate as a group—when employees vote on whether to be represented by a union, only a majority of the people who show up to vote need to vote yes—not a majority of all the people in that unit. Supporters compared that to elections in the U.S. The county’s new counsel for union matters, John Sherwood, also clarified for them that no matter the result of that election, in Virginia, people cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues. However, any concessions or benefits won by that union would apply to all employees in that bargaining unit, regardless of union membership status. And supervisors decided that they UNION ORDINANCE continues on page 30
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