The Western Tidewater Community Services Board broke ground Wednesday on a more than $5 million renovation and expansion of its Haven Treatment Campus on Godwin Boulevard, a project designed to expand access to mental health crisis services in Western Tidewater.
The project will add 16 residential crisis stabilization beds, expand 24-hour walk-in behavioral health services and create more than 4,000 square feet of new therapeutic treatment space at the facility, located at 5268 Godwin Blvd.
The expansion is designed to address a gap in mental health care in the Hampton Roads region while allowing the center to serve far more residents experiencing behavioral health crises.
“The building has been in use by Western Tidewater for at least the last 25 or 30 years, and it’s really been one of our cornerstone sites,” said Brandon Rodgers, executive director of the community services board.
Once complete, the renovated facility will include a residential crisis stabilization unit where individuals experiencing acute mental health episodes can receive treatment for up to 14 days.
“The upstairs building will be renovated to accept individuals in residential crisis stabilization services, where an individual can receive up to 14 days of care,” Rodgers said.
The residential program will include treatment from psychiatrists, social workers and peer support providers.
The project will also expand treatment areas within the campus, including dedicated space for art therapy, music therapy and health and wellness programming designed to support recovery.
Officials say the improvements will allow the center to significantly increase the number of people it serves each year. The facility currently serves between 700 and 1,000 individuals annually, but the expansion is expected to potentially double that capacity.
On a daily basis, the facility’s psychosocial rehabilitation program serves roughly 30 to 35 people, while the crisis receiving component currently assists about five individuals per day. Rodgers said those numbers are expected to rise once the expansion is complete.
The additional residential beds are also expected to help fill a regional shortage of mental health crisis stabilization services.
Rodgers said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, three crisis stabilization units operated across the Hampton Roads region. Two of those facilities closed during the pandemic due largely to staffing challenges.
“Across the Hampton Roads cities, there were three mental health crisis stabilization units prior to COVID,” Rodgers said. “Two of those units, one in Norfolk and one in Virginia Beach, closed during COVID.”
With those closures, the region’s capacity dropped significantly.
“We went from having somewhere around 45 beds to having 16,” Rodgers said.
The Suffolk facility will add 16 new beds to help restore that capacity and provide an alternative to hospital emergency departments for individuals experiencing behavioral health emergencies.