ROANOKE, Va. – Two crisis centers, designed to help anyone in a mental health emergency or crisis, are coming to Southwest Virginia in 2025.

Blue Ridge Behavioral Health is opening one in Hollins. It will be open 24 hours for anyone voluntarily seeking support and someone can stay at the center for up to 23 hours.

People can come in as walk-ins and there will be about 12 beds available.

Blue Ridge Behavioral Health’s Marcus Alert Director Mandy Lee said the center is open because behavioral health numbers have grown in recent decades.

“It turns out that people need support. People need places to go with trained professionals to help them in their time of need. Often we see people on their worst day and we want to be able to give them that support and address those needs,” said Lee.

Lee also said it helps keep beds available in hospitals and provides an alternative place for someone to stay.

At the new facility, duty officers can leave someone the courts determine needs to go to hospital because they pose a threat to themselves or others, which is known as an emergency custody order. Officers usually have to stay with that person until a hospital bed is available. However, at the new facility, an on-duty officer can transfer custody of that person to an off-duty officer trained to work with individuals in a behavioral health crisis.

The Marcus Alert facility will also be when the new center opens in 2025. Lee said this is the state’s response to an officer-involved shooting in the Richmond area. She said the purpose of Marcus Alert is to have a behavioral health response to a behavioral health crisis. Lee said there are different components.

“One is call forwarding from 911 to 988, and so if the caller calls 911 today, those dispatchers could identify their need based on a four-tiered system. It is a four-level emergency triage. They can give certain callers a transfer to 988 where they can speak to a clinician who will be able to address their needs and not send a police officer, so it really matches the response to the person’s need,” Lee said.

She said if the person needs an in-person response, she can send a police officer and a co-respondent therapist together so they can provide the best response to that person.

Horizon Behavioral is also opening a crisis drop-in center for the Lynchburg area in 2025.

Horizon Behavioral Health is currently helping about 12,000 people this year, and some of its services are case management and outpatient therapy.

At the new center opening next year, anyone going through an emergency or mental health crisis can come in and be monitored for up to 23 hours.

Some of the services include drug and alcohol detox and mental health assessments.

Horizon said the new crisis center will be a 16-bed facility and is expected to help thousands of people.

“We want to make sure we’re giving our community the tools and the help they need, and I think we’re doing that. I think we’re doing that as well as we can, and we want to make sure our community gets the services they need,” said Melissa Lucy, CEO of Horizon Behavioral Health.

At this new crisis reception center, an on-duty officer can also transfer custody of someone with an emergency custody order to an off-duty officer trained to work with those in a behavioral health crisis.

Virginia Senator Mark Peake was at Horizon last week and saw where they are in the process with the new center.

Peake said this will help get officers back on the streets.

“If one or two of them are sitting with mental health patients in the hospital, there is no one patrolling the streets and when an emergency call comes in, there are fewer people to respond and that can lead to delayed response times.” , Peake said.

Horizon said the new crisis center will also help with Virginia’s hospital bed shortage and allow people to stay in their home areas so families can visit them.