Horizon Behavioral Health presents annual report, updates crisis receiving center and outreach programs

Melissa Lucey, CEO of Horizon Behavioral Health, presented the agency’s annual report to the Lynchburg City Council on May 13, outlining program growth, grant awards and plans for a local crisis receiving center.

Luеy told council members that Horizon expanded community-based crisis response this fiscal year with co-responder and mobile response teams designed to reduce hospital readmissions and keep people in the community. “These programs actually decrease hospitalizations, keeping individuals into our community and keeping them safe,” Lucey said.

The presentation summarized service volume and new programs. Lucey reported that Horizon’s crisis team provided services to more than 1,000 people for crisis intervention and more than 2,100 people through emergency services during the fiscal year. Prevention work logged 12,211 face-to-face contacts and multiple community trainings, and Horizon said it connected 27 people with severe mental illness to permanent supportive housing.

Luеy described several recent grants and awards. She said Horizon received a three-year youth tobacco use prevention grant of $158,226 from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth to support school-based curriculum and student-led prevention activities. She also said the Lynchburg behavioral health docket received roughly $100,200 in state funds from the Supreme Court of Virginia to support expansion, and that SAMHSA awarded a $2,000,000 federal grant to increase capacity of the Lynchburg Adult Recovery Court; Lucey said the SAMHSA funds will support probation supervision, recovery housing and an external evaluation and will allow the program to serve 20 people per year for five years.

Luеy highlighted Project Link, a program serving pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders, and said Project Link had received 246 referrals from the local birthing hospital. She told council that, of women who gave birth while enrolled in Project Link, six babies were born substance-free.

On facility developments, Lucey said renovations on a crisis receiving center have begun and are on schedule. She said the center will offer walk-in mental-health evaluations, 23-hour observation, residential crisis stabilization and detox services, and will have law enforcement officers supported by Horizon to allow appropriate placement of people under emergency custody or temporary detention orders. Lucey said those services are intended to keep clients closer to their support networks and to reduce law-enforcement time spent transporting or holding people in crisis.

Council members asked clarifying questions about the new teams, the crisis receiving center timeline and community impact. Councilor Tillman said she was “very excited” about the mobile response team and the receiving center; Councilor Webb and Councilor Damon thanked Horizon for community partnerships. Lucey and council members discussed Horizon’s partnerships with the courts and local hospitals.

Luеy also noted that Horizon continues telehealth services and reported increases in in-person visits: she presented a year-over-year increase in in-person appointments from the prior fiscal year to FY24. She said Horizon’s intermediate care facilities supported 1,851 community events and trips for residents in Horizon Homes.

The presentation drew general thanks from council but no formal council action was taken on the item during the work session.

Luеy closed by thanking council and partners and inviting follow-up questions and further review of the packet she provided to council.