Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: February 3, 2009
STAUNTON — Closing the state’s two mental health hospitals for children
can’t be done sensibly, one emotional speaker told an advisory committee
meeting that was held today to figure out how to shutter the facilities.
“How can any of this take place in a sensible manner?” asked Martha Jo
Price, an Abingdon women who works with mentally ill children. “These are
children’s lives were talking about. It seems so crazy to me.
“I go into their homes and see these helpless, hopeless parents,” Price
said. “I think it’s a tragedy. I think it’s a shame . . . We need these
hospitals to stay open.”
Price echoed the concerns of about a dozen people who spoke against the
state’s plan to close the 48-bed Commonwealth Center for Children and
Adolescents and the 16-bed Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in
Marion in southwest Virginia. The state wants to ax both facilities to help
balance the state’s budget.
The state, which would save some $10 million, or about .3 percent of the
state’s $2.9 billion shortfall, claims that private mental health hospitals
can take up the slack.
James Reinhard, the commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health,
Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, held the meeting in “an
attempt to pull together as many stakeholders as possible,” he said.
“We recognize, however, that the governor’s proposal is not written in stone
. . . None of this is a completely done deal.”
The advisory group is meeting to determine the best way to ensure that the
children in need of mental health services will be cared for safely, said
Reinhard. It will meet monthly through June.
The state proposes to close the Marion facility March 1 and the Staunton
facility on June 30.
