Virginia Beach Provides Behavioral Health Help for Youth

Youth today face several challenges that impact their development and well-being. Social media can create pressures, and political and social issues can create a sense of urgency and responsibility, which lead to stress, anxiety and depression. Navigating these challenges requires support from the community and the local government to create a more nurturing environment for the younger generation.

The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services Child and Youth Behavioral Health Division provides a continuum of services for youth experiencing these challenges. The division operates through 36 clinicians, specializing in serving youth with a history of trauma, and serves approximately 400 youth monthly. The youth served often have severe and/or chronic behavioral health needs. The most common behavioral health conditions treated are depression, anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The department strives to provide residents the opportunity to achieve the highest level of self-sufficiency, safety, and quality of life possible through an array of coordinated services. The Child and Youth Behavioral Health Division offers services with clinic and community-based services in the following areas:

• Same-Day Access Clinical Assessment: Intake assessments are provided for youth and families seeking services on a walk-in basis daily without an appointment, 8 a.m. to noon, Monday-Friday at the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services Pembroke Six building, 297 Independence Blvd. 
• Outpatient Therapy: The Child and Youth Outpatient Clinic provides licensed therapists and a board-certified psychiatrist to assist with mental health and substance use problems for children, adolescents and their families. Each individual’s needs are assessed at intake and an individualized treatment plan is created with the individual and their caretakers.  
• Case Management: Child and Youth (CYBH) Case Management services assist individuals ages 5-21, who are still enrolled in a secondary educational setting, in gaining access to needed behavioral health, medical, educational and other needed services. Case Management includes assessing individual and family needs, planning services, and linking individuals to community support to promote goals as developed with the child and family. Case Management assists the individual and family in locating, developing, or obtaining services, resources and public benefits. 
• Crisis Stabilization: CYBH provides Mobile Crisis Response for youth who have called 988 and need an in-person response by a trained clinical team. In conjunction with a regional collaboration, crisis response is offered to youth 24 hours a day, and seven days a week. Youth in need are able to call or text 988 and receive a phone triage assessment from the 988 Call Center to determine their level of need. A Mobile Crisis Team can be dispatched to their location within one hour, if needed. 

The Child and Youth Behavioral Health Division also provides school-based services:  

• Rapid Response: Clinicians are deployed to elementary schools to conduct an assessment. Input is gathered from school personnel and the family. The results of the assessment are shared with the family along with any recommended community-based services. Consultation and recommendations are also provided for the school. The program has served 149 youth since its inception in February 2023 and was recently expanded to include ages 3 to 5.  
• Clinical Assessment & Outpatient Therapy: Beginning in September 2024, the division will provide in-school clinical assessment and outpatient therapy to students in Renaissance Academy. It may be expanded to other schools as needed.  

Human Services also offers prevention servicesthat seek to reducerisk factors that relate to adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.  

• Substance Abuse Intervention Program (SAIP): A 10-day, 30-hour program that emphasizes drug and alcohol education and problem-solving skills for middle and high school students who are found to be under the influence of or in possession of alcohol or other drugs, paraphernalia or look-alikes.
• Community Education: Prevention educators provide a wide variety of educational sessions for residents, children and adolescents, including active and entertaining sessions at summer camps, in the community, and for faith-based groups to educate others about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use.   

The Child and Youth Behavioral Health Division works with stakeholders such as the Virginia Beach Police Department, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Court Services, Virginia Beach Department of Public Health, hospital systems, family and friends, and national and regional organizations. For information regarding any services offered by the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Division, call 757-385-0850 or visit virginiabeach.gov/CYBH.