{"id":844713,"date":"2026-09-12T00:40:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844713\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T00:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:40:35","slug":"jlarc-renews-call-to-close-virginias-youth-psychiatric-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844713\/","title":{"rendered":"JLARC renews call to close Virginia\u2019s youth psychiatric hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2023<\/a>, the Virginia General Assembly\u2019s research and oversight arm urged officials to close the only state-run psychiatric hospital for children, due to patient safety concerns and other issues at the 48-bed facility<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three years later, the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents<\/a> in Staunton is still open and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission\u2019s recommendation to shut it down hasn\u2019t changed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

JLARC staff issued a report in December 2023 on public psychiatric hospitals that called on the state\u2019s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to plan CCCA\u2019s closure and to find alternatives for the patients it serves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some time has passed since the JLARC study, we don\u2019t have reason to believe that conditions have improved significantly, if at all,\u201d JLARC director Hal Greer told commission members<\/a> on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we continued to get phone calls from staff at the facility after the completion of our study, who shared serious concerns about safety and treatment,\u201d Greer said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D\u2013Charlottesville), a JLARC member, told Greer that former Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u2019s administration prepared a plan to close the facility but it didn\u2019t move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deeds said it was \u201ca very tough issue\u201d for state officials, and encouraged Gov. Abigail Spanberger\u2019s administration to spend time to consider the implications for patients if Virginia eyes a path to shut down the center. But, he said, there\u2019s no question it has problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hospital primarily treats foster kids, teenage foster kids. I haven\u2019t been in the hospital for a year, but the last time I was there, it was the most dangerous psychiatric hospital we have,\u201d Deeds said during Tuesday\u2019s JLARC meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a text message after Tuesday\u2019s JLARC meeting, Deeds told VPM News that there are no plans to close the hospital.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Virginia\u2019s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which oversees the hospital, also said in a Wednesday statement that the department \u201cis not currently pursuing closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work on Virginia\u2019s children\u2019s behavioral health system following the report has reinforced how important CCCA remains to the current ecosystem,\u201d department spokesperson Lauren Cunningham said in an email. \u201cVirginia still has significant gaps in inpatient, residential, crisis and other specialized services for children with complex behavioral health needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to other state psychiatric facilities examined in JLARC\u2019s 2023 study, Greer said on Tuesday that \u201cCCCA stood out as the worst or among the worst performance performers\u201d in many ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greer noted during the meeting\u00a0 that, at the time of the study, the hospital had the highest rate of physical safety incidents between patients and between patients and staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that the psychiatric hospital for children also had \u201cthe highest rate of patient self-harm, the highest number and percentage of substantial human rights complaints, the highest use of physical restraint against patients, the highest staff turnover, nearly the highest staff vacancy rate, and the greatest dependence on expensive contract staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

JLARC\u2019s report says the hospital received 28 citations during an unannounced inspection by the Joint Commission<\/a>, a national healthcare accrediting body, and \u201cwas determined to be an immediate threat to the health and safety of patients, according to DBHDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its Wednesday statement, the department said it has worked to improve the hospital\u2019s safety and operations, including installing cameras and fencing around the perimeter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the department, the hospital\u2019s use of seclusion and restraints decreased by 58% from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026. In that time, DBHDS said that there was a \u201c34% reduction in workers compensation injuries\u201d at the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cDBHDS believes people should receive care in the setting best equipped to meet their needs, and state hospitals should not be the default when more appropriate care is available,\u201d the department said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting covered other recommendations from JLARC\u2019s 2023 report that haven\u2019t been implemented, including one to allow state psychiatric hospitals to deny admissions if the new patient would put a facility above 85% of their staffed capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per JLARC\u2019s report, industry standards are that psychiatric hospitals shouldn\u2019t generally operate at more than 85% of their staffed bed capacity but, at the time, all of Virginia\u2019s exceeded that level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deeds said denying admissions \u201cwould essentially repeal the bed of last resort,\u201d referencing the 2014 state law<\/a> that requires state psychiatric facilities to accept patients under a temporary detention order if no private hospital is available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deeds carried the legislation after the state couldn\u2019t find an available bed for his son, Austin \u201cGus\u201d Deeds, who he had placed under an emergency court order amid a mental health episode. Gus had to return home, where he later attacked Deeds before fatally shooting himself. In a 60 Minutes interview<\/a>, Deeds said the system failed his son.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greer said there is plenty of capacity at private hospitals. As a result, JLARC recommended that officials fund incentives for state-licensed private facilities to increase their involuntary inpatient admissions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2023, the Virginia General Assembly\u2019s research and oversight arm urged officials to close the only state-run psychiatric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-844713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}