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Mount Rogers seeks county support for new crisis beds, wellness center
Summary
Mount Rogers Community Service Board told the Smyth County Board of Supervisors it will expand crisis stabilization capacity from 8 to 16 beds, add outpatient and primary-care services and operate a wellness center offering showers, clothing and food to reduce law‑enforcement transports.
Mount Rogers Community Service Board representatives presented a plan to expand local behavioral-health capacity and asked Smyth County to consider funding and partnership. Sandy Bryant, introduced by the board as a Mount Rogers representative, said the project will increase crisis stabilization beds from 8 to 16, bring outpatient services and co‑locate the crisis center with the stabilization unit so fewer people are transported by police.
"That addition will have, go from 8 to 16 crisis stabilization beds," Bryant said, adding the site will include a wellness center where people can shower, get clothing and receive peer support before clinical care. Matt Sabo, Mount Rogers communications director, told supervisors the agency serves roughly 2,990 people per year in 2023–24 and has a cumulative total of 8,620 served across recent years; staff and board members corrected a numeric error in the packet during the meeting.
Mount Rogers also asked the board to consider its FY27 local match request. Christie Glevins, director of financial services, said Mount Rogers’ FY26 revenues are about $90,400,000 with 46% from third‑party payers and Medicaid and roughly 35% from state and federal restricted funding. She said a statutory 10% local match calculation produces a gross FY27 obligation of about $2.5 million, with deductions and in‑kind credits bringing Smyth County’s assessed share to a requested $399,044 compared with a current contribution of $150,000. "Of that, we can deduct out some other things to kind of bring that number down," Glevins said.
The presentation included program detail: primary‑care screening, hepatitis treatment delivered by Mount Rogers clinicians, veteran navigators and prevention programming such as mental‑health first‑aid and suicide‑prevention training. Supervisors asked about service penetration rates and whether local programs overlap; Mount Rogers staff said penetration varies by locality (about 6–7% in Smyth County, 10% in Galax, and lower in Bland) and stressed coordination to avoid duplicative services. The board did not take a formal funding vote at the meeting and requested staff follow up on the agency’s budget details and local‑match calculation.
