Dickenson County Behavioral Health Services has grown so much in recent years that some of its employees are now “stuffed” in closets, according to Executive Director Kevin Mullins.
The number of employees has more than doubled — going from around 35 to 75 — and the range of programs and services has increased, as has demand for those services, he added.
So, through a new partnership with the county’s industrial development authority, the agency is expanding and relocating its main clinical services office to a former call center building in the Happy Valley Industrial Park in Clintwood. The agency works out of a total of seven buildings.
Much of the growth can be attributed to STEP-VA, or System Transformation Excellence and Performance, which is an effort to improve the state’s mental health system by building a set of core services, which are now consistent across all 40 of the state’s community service boards.
The county’s behavioral health services agency is the state’s smallest community services board, and it now offers the same programs and services provided in other parts of the state, like Richmond, Fairfax and Arlington, Mullins said. The program was approved in 2018, and the changes have been made gradually over the years.
At the same time, demand has grown for the services, particularly for clients dealing with substance abuse, Mullins said. Dickenson County has one of the highest overdose death rates in the state, which has hampered the county’s economic development efforts.
Helping the agency is another effort to address both public health and economic development issues in the county, said Dana Cronkhite, executive director of the IDA.
Other efforts include developing two drug treatment centers. The first, Wildwood Recovery Center, is a modular facility for men, which has been constructed near Clintwood. The second, the Primrose Recovery Center, will be for women and is in the planning stages. It will be built in a former school building in the Nora community.
Addiction Recovery Care, the Kentucky company that will operate both centers, has applied for a license from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to provide residential substance abuse care at Wildwood.
The former call center building has been vacant since its last tenant, Serco, moved out in 2022.
The partnership with behavioral health services will repurpose the building rather than let it sit idle, which is an “opportunity to invest in something foundational to our community, which is our people. Community health and wellness are critical components of a thriving economy. When our residents have access to quality behavioral health services, we strengthen our workforce, support families, and make our county a more resilient and prosperous place to live and work,” Cronkhite said in the release.
Behavioral Health Services offers mental health, substance abuse and developmental services, including therapy, physicians and psychiatric services, psychosocial day support, mental health skills building and substance abuse prevention, and other programs.
Currently, the agency’s clinical department is located in a former health clinic building in Clintwood. Under the partnership, the agency will lease the first floor of the call center building, which will serve as its main clinical services building, housing mental health and substance abuse, therapy, case management and Medicaid-assisted treatment services.
Mullins said the new space will allow the agency to expand services, improve the client experience and operate in a facility better suited to modern behavioral health care.
The building will be customized for clinical use, and that work will begin soon, the news release states. Currently, the building is mostly one big open space, which will be transformed into about 40 offices, according to Mullins.
He said he expects the renovation to take at least a year, so the move will likely be made in the summer of 2026.
