Advocates Want Older Hospital For More Psychiatric Beds, Owners Want To Build Expensive Homes For Sale

Older Hospital To Be Developed Into High End Housing or a State Mental Facility?

(6-18-21) How long does it take for someone with a mental illness to become stable enough to be discharged from a hospital?

Roughly 30 percent of Virginia residents are discharged within seven days, according to a report. The others are discharged within 30 days.

Henry Johnson, the chair of Alexandria’s Community Services Board (which oversees mental health services in the county) said it took him 11 months.

He is urging Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to use state money to purchase one of the oldest hospitals in Virginia and convert it into a new state mental health hospital. INOVA has announced that in 2028 it will close its 318-bed Alexandria Hospital, which has operated for 149 years, and build a new complex in a former, large shopping mall that closed in 2017. It wants to raze the older hospital and sell the land  to housing developers.

It remains difficult in Virginia on some days to find available beds.

In addition, Johnson is calling on legislators to create a new classification that would make it tougher for hospitals to discharge psychiatric patients. Before a patient could be discharged, Johnson would require them to be able to advocate for themselves, have insight into their illness, and be willing to cooperate with a treatment plan for at least ten days.

In a recent letter, Johnson wrote: 

“This would be a huge step towards the long term health of the chronically mentally ill, and I believe would reduce crime, reduce recidivism, reduce overall cost of mental health treatment by making recovery achievable for all, and likely have profound effects on chronic homelessness in the Commonwealth.”

The anti-state hospital movement of the past is being challenged more and more, with several states expanding and building more hospitals. What do you think about Johnson’s call for more longer term beds and tougher discharge criteria? What do you think about using the INOVA hospital for mental health rather than high end housing? Tell me on my facebook page.

Here is a copy of Johnson’s recent letter to Delegate Charniele Herring, the majority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates.

My name is Henry Johnson.  I am the Chair of Alexandria’s Community Services Board, this Region’s representative to the Virginia State Community Board, A Certified Peer Recovery Specialist for Fairfax County CSB’s First Episode Psychosis Program, and am enjoying my 6th year in recovery with a diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder (in complete remission).

While I take pride in all of these things, the one that gives me the most deep personal peace and contentment is my recovery.  I do not see it as a coincidence that my recovery has been so robust considering that my last hospitalization was far longer than the average length of stay in a mental health hospital.  I served 11 months for a competency to stand trial after a complete mental collapse during grad school (which thanks to my recovery I was able to finish).

It is not uncommon during weekly staff meetings at my job for me to comment that if only our clients were given the same foundational baseline of competence and were on the road to their recovery when they left the hospital, as I was, that they would have far more stable and bright futures in their recovery journey.

I have written to Governor Ralph Northam in support of the current location of INOVA Alexandria Hospital, which is about to be empty as INOVA builds a world class facility on the old grounds of Landmark Mall, to be purchased by the state and made into Virginia’s newest Public Behavioral Health Hospital.  I even went as far as to suggest the name “Northern State.”

While expanding the deeply needed number of mental health beds is a crucial step towards Virginia’s treatment of behavioral health crises.  I am writing to you, to advocate for the creation of a new hospitalization classification.  I see a desperate need for an expansion of Emergency Custody Orders and Temporary Detention Orders for hospitalization and see a definite need for a long term non-criminal hospitalization option for individuals who need higher discharge criteria than the minimalist standards TDO’s provide.

I see a standard which would come into effect for chronic TDO recipients where the discharge standards would include:

1) Ability to advocate for oneself
2) insight into their behavior
3) ability to cooperate with appropriate treatment for a consistent period of no less than 10 days.

Because I see myself as remarkably creative I would refer to this type of hospitalization as an ICR or Inpatient Competency

Restoration.

I would have the legal standard for an application for an Inpatient Competency Restoration to require:

1) a minimum of 3 TDOs (either voluntary or court ordered or a combination of both) in a 12 month period
or 2) 5 TDO’s (either voluntary of court ordered or a combination of both)  in a period 24 month period
or 3) 6 TDO’s (either voluntary of court ordered or a combination of both)  in a 36 month period (either voluntary of court ordered)

There are several other elements that need to be addressed, such as being moved to the top of any waiting list for public housing upon discharge, and any appropriate family support, as well as an expansion of Crisis Intervention Team trained law enforcement officers throughout the state.

This would be a huge step towards the long term health of the chronically mentally ill, and I believe would reduce crime, reduce recidivism, reduce overall cost of mental health treatment by making recovery achievable for all, and likely have profound effects on chronic homelessness in the Commonwealth.I welcome all thoughts, and am happy to volunteer time as an advocate for the human, civil and legal rights of all Virginians with behavioral health challenges.

Thank you for your time

Henry Johnson

Henry Johnson says more hospital beds are needed for longer stays for those who need them.

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