Department of Human Services | ARLnow.com

Published April 6, 2023 at 3:55PM

A check-in with adults in National Capital Treatment & Recovery (via National Capital Treatment & Recovery/YouTube)

Seven years after ending its substance use treatment options for youth, a local facility is poised to resume providing some outpatient services.

National Capital Treatment & Recovery CEO Debby Taylor tells ARLnow that Arlington County approached the center about providing therapeutic services to youth in the county after 14-year-old Sergio Flores fatally overdosed at Wakefield High School. The center has since obtained licensure to provide intensive outpatient and outpatient services and could be ready to debut its programming this spring.

News

Arlington County, nonprofits nab $3M to fund homelessness prevention efforts

By Jo DeVoe

Published April 5, 2023 at 3:45PM

A sleeping bag and roll of toilet paper in an alcove of the elevated walkway in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Local nonprofits and the Arlington County government have received $3 million in federal funding to address homelessness.

Nearly $200,000 will go to two new programs from the organizations Doorways and PathForward, formerly A-SPAN. The rest — save for about $81,000 for the county — will support existing programs provided by Bridges to Independence, Doorways, New Hope Housing and PathForward.

News

Older Arlington teens could get drug therapy from opioid settlements. Advocates say kids need more interventions.

By Jo DeVoe

Published March 3, 2023 at 1:45PM

Counterfeit OxyContin with fentanyl, also known as 'blues' (via Drug Enforcement Agency/Flickr)

Drug use intervention programs for youth are in short supply in Arlington County, according to people who help youth with substance dependencies.

The need is particularly acute for younger teens, as the onset of exposure to and abuse of drugs is trending younger, National Capital Treatment and Recovery Clinical Director Pattie Schneeman said in a recent panel.

News

Arlington gets $1.2M grant to help people living in shelters or outdoors move into apartments

By Jo DeVoe

Published February 13, 2023 at 10:30AM

Man sleeping on a bench outside Arlington Central Library (file photo)

Arlington County has received a $1.2 million federal grant to move people experiencing homelessness into permanent or temporary apartment housing.

Approximately 55% of the grant will be for housing — mostly one- and two-bedroom affordable rental units — and the remainder “is for supportive services and staffing,” says Dept. of Human Services spokesman Kurt Larrick.

News

Shortage of mental health beds pushes Arlington toward community-based care

By Jo DeVoe

Published January 25, 2023 at 3:55PM

A whiteboard at Arlington County's Crisis Intervention Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

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In Arlington and across the state, hospital emergency rooms are filling up with people in mental health crises, often handcuffed to gurneys and attended by law enforcement officers.

News

JUST IN: VHC to build mental health and rehab facility at former urgent care site

By Jo DeVoe

Published January 24, 2023 at 2:35PM | Updated January 24, 2023 at 3:03PM

The entrance to the old Virginia Hospital Center building on S. Carlin Springs Road on Sept. 13, 2022 (staff photo)

VHC Health could break ground on a new mental health and rehabilitation facility at its old urgent care facility on S. Carlin Springs Road as soon as this year.

Arlington County and VHC Health — the new name of Virginia Hospital Center — announced a joint agreement this afternoon to expand behavioral health and rehab services through the proposed project at 601 S. Carlin Springs Road.

News

JUST IN: Multiple power outages in Arlington as winds ramp up

By ARLnow.com

Published December 23, 2022 at 10:15AM | Updated December 23, 2022 at 3:07PM

Power outage in Arlington as of 10 a.m. (via Dominion)

Update at 3:05 p.m. — Numerous small, scattered outages have been reported around Arlington. The number of Dominion customers in the dark is now down to just over 800, with the larger earlier outage since largely resolved.

Earlier: Today’s frigid wind storm is just getting underway — complete with a recent bout of snow flurries — but many are already without power in Arlington.

Schools

Nonprofit partners with county schools to provide food assistance to students in need

By Matt Blitz

Published August 26, 2022 at 11:30AM

Food for Neighbors volunteers (photo courtesy of Food for Neighbors)

A non-profit is teaming up with the county and schools to provide food assistance to students when classes start up again next week.

Food for Neighbors (FFN), the Department of Human Services (DHS), and Arlington Public Schools (APS) have announced a partnership where food, toiletries, and grocery gift cards will be collected and distributed to students in need on a weekly basis.

Feature

What can we do to help Arlingtonians experiencing homelessness?

By Matt Blitz

Published May 13, 2022 at 11:30AM

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Arlington from 2013 to 2022 (via Arlington County)

What can we do to help those in our community who are experiencing homelessness is a question Triina Van gets a lot.

Van has been Homeless Services Coordinator at Arlington County’s Department of Human Services for about a year and a half. But she has more than two decades of experience working in the field and thinking about this very question.

News

Beyer nabs $1.4 million in federal funding for three local health, parks projects

By Jo DeVoe

Published March 14, 2022 at 3:15PM | Updated March 15, 2022 at 4:11PM

A new bridge in Glencarlyn Park (courtesy Dennis Dimick)

Update at 4 p.m. on 3/15/22 — President Joe Biden has signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill with funding for three projects in Arlington.

In the 10 months it took for the funding to pass, Arlington County substantially completed two of the projects: repaving parts of the Bluemont Junction Trail and replacing a pedestrian bridge in Glencarlyn Park.

News

Arlington builds call system to divert people in mental health crises from jail

By Jo DeVoe

Published February 25, 2022 at 1:45PM

Arlington 911 dispatcher at the county's Emergency Communications Center (via Arlington County)

Arlington County is developing an alert system aimed at improving its emergency response to behavioral health crises.

The aim of the system, dubbed the Marcus Alert, is to keep people in crisis — due to a mental illness, substance use disorder or intellectual and developmental disabilities — from being arrested and booked in jail.