COVINGTON, Va. – Millions of dollars in state funding will provide a boost to mental health services in the Alleghany Highlands. Lawmakers and community members broke ground Monday on a new 24/7 crisis receiving center in Covington, an effort to help adults and children dealing with mental health emergencies.
The ceremonial mound of dirt was years in the making for Alleghany Highlands Community Services.
The agency has dealt with a shortage of resources to help people in mental health crisis.
“For a number of years, and I’ve done my role for 17 years, we’ve had to transport people across the state for the services that they need, and the idea of having a small prototype crisis receiving center here in Covington was that’s the answer,” said Ingrid Wallace-Barber, executive director of Alleghany Highlands Community Services.
Wallace-Barber said in the past two years alone, there have been 1,800 behavioral health visits to the local emergency room.
That demand, along with long-distance transports, has also put a strain on law enforcement.
“It’s a very tasking thing to have to do, especially when you’re already short,” said Alleghany County Sheriff Kyle Moore.
The center will start small once it opens in the fall of 2026, featuring 23-hour recliners. It will eventually expand to include crisis stabilization beds to help people for longer periods of time.
“We’ll have our crisis intervention team, which will work closely with local law enforcement so they can drop people off here to have assessments and they can get back to doing community policing,” Wallace-Barber said. “And we’re also going to have a mobile crisis team here.”
The center is being funded by a $3.9 million grant as part of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “Right Help, Right Now” initiative, which aims to boost mental health services in the region and across the commonwealth.