Fairfax County officials finalized the purchase of a Chantilly property earlier this month to support an expansion of care for adults seeking mental health treatment.
The property, located at 14554 Lee Road, currently operates as Connections Chantilly, a 16-bed, short-term residential treatment center. It will soon be reclassified as a Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Center, meaning it will “provide an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization … and will offer treatment for those who also need safe withdrawal from substances.”
The new iteration of the 80,000-square-foot property will ultimately see the addition of seven units and allow staff to provide walk-in behavioral health services 24/7.
“Expanding services allows people in our community to have even more access to crisis services closer to home,” the county said in a press release announcing the acquisition. “It will reduce the reliance on state psychiatric hospital beds and will alleviate some of the pressure on the state psychiatric bed crisis.”
Expected to offer the elevated services in late 2027, the existing 16-bed facility will continue to operate during construction, according to county officials.
As of today (Wednesday), no permit applications — which are required for construction projects — have been filed for the facility since the county took possession of the site for $7 million on March 4, per property records.
The addition of the facility to the county’s portfolio reinforces an increased focus by the local government on improved mental health treatment services.
Last week, the county celebrated the opening of a new Northern Virginia Adolescent Treatment Center, which began providing residential, medically-managed detox services for youth patients struggling with drug and alcohol addiction yesterday (Tuesday).
The facility, also located in Chantilly at the Tim Harmon campus (4213 Walney Road), will also offer treatment for mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, that often “co-occur” with addiction.
“For years, our region has felt the impact of rising youth overdoses and the profound challenges families face when trying to access appropriate treatment,” Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith said in a speech before a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday (March 20).
“Too often, young people have had to travel far from home just to receive the services they desperately need,” Smith added. “We knew we could do better for our community, and today, we are proving that we can.”
Like the teen treatment center, the expanded adult crisis center is intended in part to reduce the county’s reliance on the limited number of beds available at state psychiatric hospitals, the press release says:
Currently, Fairfax County has two crisis stabilization units, in addition to other emergency and crisis response services. Expanding services allows people in our community to have even more access to crisis services closer to home. It will reduce the reliance on state psychiatric hospital beds and will alleviate some of the pressure on the state psychiatric bed crisis.
The expanded center will also provide Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) an opportunity to exchange custody of individuals under a Temporary Detention Order (TDO) to the center, reducing both the time that individuals spend in LEO custody and boarding in local emergency departments, returning LEOs to the community more expeditiously and freeing up emergency departments to respond to more acute medical emergencies.