Horizon Behavioral Health details new Central Virginia crisis care center, programs and regional grant

Melissa Lucy, chief executive officer of Horizon Behavioral Health, told the Bedford County Board of Supervisors the agency is opening a crisis care center this year intended to serve Lynchburg, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties.

“Our crisis care center will be a groundbreaking facility,” Lucy said, describing a center designed to provide walk-in mental health evaluations, residential crisis stabilization, a voluntary 23-hour stabilization unit, medical detoxification and allied supportive services.

Lucy said the project cost was $15.2 million and that Horizon did not request additional county funding for construction. She said the site has a certificate of occupancy and is awaiting state licensure before opening to the public.

The center’s capacity, Lucy said, will include 16 flexible crisis beds that are recorded under the Code of Virginia as 16 “chairs” that recline; the configuration allows for a functional total of 32 sleeping spaces when chairs are used as beds. The facility will also include bays for emergency custody orders — five for adults and three for children — and an on-site pharmacy and integrated co-responder partnerships with local law enforcement.

Lucy framed the center as part of a broader strategy to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and jailings by stabilizing people in the least restrictive setting and keeping them close to local supports. “We are committed to offering an alternative to hospitalizations or incarceration,” she said.

The presentation summarized other Horizon programs that administrators said lower readmissions and improve outcomes: the Bedford Family Treatment Docket (reported graduation rate 16.6 percentage points above the state average), the TREE program for adolescents and transitional-aged youth, and Project LINK, which provided wrap-around services to pregnant and postpartum women with substance-use disorders and served 62 individuals last year, Lucy said.

Lucy also announced a four-year, $1,000,000 award from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program, beginning Aug. 1, 2025, to expand evidence-based Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) services into neighboring counties. She highlighted Horizon’s growth in school-based services, noting it now serves students on site in 11 Bedford County schools, up from four six years ago.

During questions, a board member asked about bed counts and opening timing. Lucy said Horizon has been hiring staff and could pursue a soft opening once licensure is approved, but is not yet fully staffed.

Lucy corrected a slip of the tongue during her presentation, clarifying that Horizon operates nine wellness centers (not 900) in its catchment area and reported a workforce of about 653 employees across 17 locations that include eight ICFs.

The presentation concluded with Lucy asking for continued collaboration with the county’s schools, social services and sheriff’s department to sustain prevention, treatment and crisis response services.