Access (Emergency) Services

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If you are experiencing a psychiatric emergency, call (or text) 9-8-8 now or call 540-961-8400.

EMERGENCY SERVICES
NRVCS Emergency Services provides emergency evaluation and crisis intervention to the New River Valley 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Emergency Services at NRVCS are key to the safety net of care for those individuals in our local community who are struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders. We are able to provide clinical assessment and referral to a variety of services upon request.

By Virginia Code, it is a primary responsibility of Emergency Services to provide evaluations under the civil commitment process for those individuals who are in need of immediate inpatient psychiatric treatment and are either unwilling to seek this treatment or unable to consent to this treatment. Immediate assessment and intervention services are initiated by referrals from a number of community partners and are provided in a variety of settings including: medical hospitals, schools, law enforcement offices, and nursing and adult homes.

RAFT CRISIS HOTLINE
The Raft Crisis Hotline is a program that offers free paraprofessional phone counseling services to the community.

Raft volunteers provide crisis intervention, empathy and support, mental health and substance abuse information and referrals to the counties of Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, Pulaski and the City of Radford (including Virginia Tech and Radford University).

Raft is the only volunteer crisis hotline in Virginia affiliated with and located within a community service board, New River Valley Community Services (NRVCS). This provides Raft callers with continual access to professionals and trained volunteers, phone counseling, information and referrals—services not available through other CSBs. Learn more

CIT_logoCRISIS INTERVENTION TEAM (CIT)
The New River Valley Crisis Intervention Team (NRVCIT) is a successful program for improving police interactions with persons with mental illness. It is a pre-booking jail diversion program developed to prevent the inappropriate incarceration of individuals with mental illness and provide an alternative outcome which addresses both public safety and therapeutic concerns.

The key components of any CIT program are training of law enforcement officers to recognize and intervene with individuals suffering from mental illness through the use of basic crisis intervention and verbal de-escalation strategies and an assessment center that allows for the transfer of custody of individuals held on an emergency custody order.

As the first CIT program in Virginia and the first rural, multijurisdictional CIT program in the nation, NRVCIT has trained more than 250 local law enforcement officers and an additional 154 officers from across Virginia and the ranks of Virginia State Police.

ACUTE SERVICES (SHORT-TERM CRISIS COUNSELING)
Acute services are designed to provide rapid counseling intervention to adults experiencing a significant crisis that has impacted their emotional or psychological functioning. Services are provided at NRVCS sites and may include counseling visits and telephone contacts, case management services, and referral to community supports and other agency services.

The goal of services is to quickly stabilize symptoms by maximizing available supports and resources, avoiding the disruption of residential or inpatient care. The service allows clinicians to provide counseling up to several times per week, based on the intensity of the presenting concerns.  Many problems can be resolved within the 30-day brief treatment time frame of the Acute Services program, allowing individuals to address challenges quickly and resume their daily living.

JAIL SERVICES
Jail services are available at differing levels at our local jail facilities.  At a minimum, services include  psychiatric assessments and medication evaluations (conducted by psychiatric staff) for those inmates identified to need these interventions. In the New River Regional jail, a case manager is available to provide weekly coping skills groups  and case management supports to those individuals who will need ongoing psychiatric treatment upon release. In addition, staff is available weekly to assess the mental health needs of inmates and provide supportive counseling. Emergency Services, including pre-admission screenings and crisis interventions, are available as needed and upon the request of the facility.