Virginia Plan’s Fine Print

Here are some of the key details of Virginia’s Community Reinvestment Project:

• Five state psychiatric facilities will be downsized, and the savings will be invested in community-based services identified by regional planning committees.

• About $34 million in the state-facilities budget will be transferred in Fiscal 2004 and Fiscal 2005 to local community-service boards to buy services for people who have mental illness and would have been hospitalized previously.

• About 261 beds will be closed at five state inpatient facilities during Fiscal 2004 and Fiscal 2005, which equals about 15 percent of 1,798 total beds now available.

Here is a breakdown of the plan’s projected bed closures by population and facility:

• 86 acute-care beds will be closed at Eastern State Hospital

• 32 acute-care beds will be closed at Southwestern State Mental Health Institute

• 63 civil and forensic beds will be closed at Central State Hospital

• 49 dual-diagnosis (mental illness and mental retardation) and long-term psychiatric beds will be closed at Western State Hospital

• 31 beds at Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute will be closed