Department of Human Services | ARLnow.com

Morning Notes

Published March 30, 2020 at 7:30AM

Reminder: Tap Water Change Today — “The District of Columbia, Arlington County and northeastern Fairfax County will clean out their tap water network starting Monday — a safe, annual process. Service continues uninterrupted during the process, which runs from March 30 through May 4. During that time, drinking water in the may taste slightly different. But the purification process remains unchanged and the water is essentially unchanged.” [ARLnow]

Jail Takes Extra Precautions — “We have created a unit that is strictly for all new individuals that are committed to the jail. These individuals are ‘quarantined’ from the rest of the population for an initial 14 days and checked daily by our Medical Staff. With the Detention Center population being low, we were able to move inmates around, creating the safest environment for those individuals that have been remanded to our custody and for new individuals entering the facility.” [Arlington County]

News

Officials, Activists Ask County to Make Mental Health Docket More Inclusive

By Airey

Published August 16, 2019 at 3:45PM

Public Defender Brad Haywood (right) during a 2019 panel on jail diversion (file photo)

Officials and activists are asking the county courts to make a newly-proposed mental health jail diversion program more inclusive.

Arlington and Fairfax public defenders joined several advocates during a Thursday evening meeting about the proposal, and urged county officials to broaden the mental illnesses diagnoses accepted in the program and not require plea bargains as a participation requirement.

News

Officials Warn of Foodborne Illness Outbreak in Arlington and N. Va.

By Airey

Published July 23, 2019 at 3:30PM

15. Cyclospora sickened dozens in Northern Virginia (Image via CDC)

Arlington and Northern Virginia are experiencing a possible outbreak of cases from a particular foodborne illness.

Dozens people in the region are suspected of having contracted a gastrointestinal illness called Cyclosporiasis, according to a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health. The outbreak involves “two large businesses” where more than 40 people were sickened, possibly with Cyclosporiasis, as well as 15 confirmed cases of the disease, officials say.

News

Residents, Officials Ask for More Time to Review Mental Health Court Program

By Airey

Published July 19, 2019 at 1:30PM

Three judges answered questions during the behavioral health docket meeting, including Fran O'Brien, Daniel T. Lopez, and Jason Rucker (Staff photo by Airey)

Some officials and residents are asking for more time to review a jail diversion program for people with mental illnesses, saying the county developed it without enough public input.

About a hundred people gathered in the County Board’s meeting room Wednesday afternoon for a meeting called after activists requested a chance to weigh in on the new criminal justice program. Attendees expressed general support for the “Behavioral Health Docket” but worried about its requirement that participants plead guilty to participate, adding that the county needed to listen to more members of the public before finalizing the program.

News

Arlington County Considering Jail Diversion Program for Mentally Ill

By Airey

Published July 9, 2019 at 3:30PM | Updated July 9, 2019 at 4:39PM

Arlington's detainee intake

Arlington County is considering a new program to divert people with mental illnesses into treatment instead of jail.

The proposed program would waive incarceration for people with mental illnesses who are convicted of non-violent misdemeanors if they agree to an intensive treatment program supervised by a judge. All the officials who spoke to ARLnow about the program supported it, but some weren’t aware the county was working on the program and said they had little opportunity to add input.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published January 14, 2019 at 8:45AM | Updated May 7, 2019 at 10:10AM

Free Pet Food for Furloughed Feds — Kriser’s Natural Pet, which has stores in the Courthouse area and the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center, is giving a free bag of food for anyone affected by the shutdown who shows a government ID. [Tysons Reporter]

County Clears Trash from TR Island Lot — With National Park Service maintenance workers furloughed, Arlington County crews helped clear overflowing trash from the Theodore Roosevelt Island parking lot last week. [Twitter]

News

Private Donation Would Help Fund Citizenship Applications

By Chris Teale

Published January 22, 2018 at 10:45AM

Arlington County government offices/headquarters at 2100 Clarendon Blvd

A private citizen made the $7,000 donation to the county’s Department of Human Services for a scholarship fund that will pay a portion of the costs to file an N-400 form, the Application for Naturalization.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s website, the filing fee is $640, with an extra $85 fee for biometric testing added in some cases for a total of $725.

News

County Boosts Suicide Prevention Efforts, Launches Youth Program

By Katie Pyzyk

Published December 30, 2016 at 11:00AM | Updated March 21, 2017 at 11:04AM

The county’s Dept. of Human Services is enhancing its suicide prevention strategies based on the Zero Suicide initiative. The overall goal is to reduce the number of suicides in the county — there were 41 reported between 2013 an 2015 — to zero and improve care and outcomes for those seeking help.

Over the summer some county staff attended a seminar to learn more about implementing the Zero Suicide methods. They’ve applied the strategies and have been teaching other employees about them so everyone is on the same page in the new year.

News

County Board Rips ‘Troubling’ Proposed Child Care Regulations

By ARLnow.com

Published February 24, 2016 at 3:55PM | Updated February 24, 2016 at 6:24PM

As ARLnow.com first reported Monday, the most recent draft of the child care regulations would have required child care centers to encourage mothers to breastfeed and would have dictated what type of milk, juice and birthday treats could be fed to children, among other provisions.

That’s in addition to new staffing and employee education requirements that panicked the operators of small and part-time child care centers, who said such rules would put them out of business or at least drive up the cost of daycare and preschool programs.

News

Child Care Providers Should Encourage Moms to Breastfeed, Says Proposed County Regs

By ARLnow.com

Published February 22, 2016 at 5:40PM | Updated February 22, 2016 at 6:00PM

Daycare and preschool providers in Arlington are decrying proposed new child care regulations as overly onerous and intrusive.

A 34-page draft of new child care center regulations would set stringent requirements for employee education, require food handling certificates for handing out snacks and would require providers to encourage mothers to breast feed, among numerous other regulatory provisions.

Around Town

‘Secret Santa’ Makes $10,000 Donation for Arlington Families in Need

By Jennifer Currier

Published December 16, 2015 at 2:30PM

A man donated $10,000 to the Department of Human Services’ Secret Santa initiative, a program that collects donations of gift cards from area stores to be distributed throughout the community.

DHS Communications Manager Kurt Larrick has organized the program since 2007. He was called to the front desk after he was told a gentleman had questions about the program.