Arlington’s response team for people in mental health and substance use crises is on track for a substantial buildout.
An additional $478,286 in federal funds would allow Arlington to hire two therapists and another behavioral health specialist for the Mobile Outreach Support Team (MOST), a county report says. This would mean expanded hours of operation for the team that launched last summer with just three personnel.
Arlington County is slated to accept a $95,000 grant to place two older adults with serious mental illnesses in community-based treatment once they leave state psychiatric hospitals.
The money will pay for housing costs, medications, transportation, or other associated costs as part of their treatment plans.
The next year will see some important steps forward as Arlington County looks to uncouple law enforcement from its response to homelessness and behavioral health crises.
In 2024, the county will implement new protocols and a call system to ensure people experiencing behavioral health crises — due to a mental illness, substance use disorder or disability — receive services rather than get arrested and jailed.
A one-woman show ran one of the county programs that diverts people from jail.
Her departure this summer has left a hole in the county’s series of initiatives that keep defendants out of jail, reduce their time in the detention facility or improve their chances of not reoffending once they leave.
High school-based behavioral health services could be in place by November or December of this year, according to the county.
In the wake of a mini-rash of student deaths earlier this year that included the fatal overdose of a 14-year-old Wakefield High School student, Arlington Public Schools and the county government began devising a joint response to the twin epidemics of substance use and mental health issues.
In its first month of operation, Arlington County’s mobile behavioral health response team has been busy responding to calls.
Most of these calls — which range from welfare checks to mental health emergencies and drug overdoses — involve people who are homeless, officials say. It’s a trend they attribute to the recent closures of shelters in D.C.
Next week a new county government van will hit the streets, providing on-the-scene behavioral health services.
The van will be operated by a new “Mobile Outreach Support Team,” consisting of “a licensed behavioral health clinician, a certified peer recovery specialist, and an outreach worker” from Arlington’s Dept. of Human Services.
Arlington County police are investigating the death of a man near the county office complex at Sequoia Plaza.
A family member called 911 around 4 p.m., reporting that he was attempting to kill himself, according to initial reports. He was found dead by arriving police and firefighters, in an outdoor area near the Arlington Dept. of Human Services offices and a county-run mental health facility.
Local and state officials gathered today to celebrate the grand opening of a place where people can go if they are experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
The newly renovated Crisis Intervention Center (CIC) provides behavioral healthcare services in a community-based setting to individuals experiencing a psychiatric crisis. The location at 2120 Washington Blvd is open 24/7, 365 days per year, to people of all ages.
When Arlington firefighters respond to drug overdoses, they could soon start bringing along enough doses of an opioid-reversal drug to leave some behind.
This is part of a statewide effort “to prevent fatal overdoses and increase community access” to the nasal spray Narcan, one form of the reversal drug called naloxone.
Arlington County says it provided assistance to 1,070 people who were experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing housing last year.
This number is five times higher than the number of people found living outside or in a shelter one night in January 2022. One night last winter, as part of the “point-in-time” count, 182 people did not have permanent, stable housing, according to a new report on homelessness in Arlington.
