New Norfolk Center Adds 16 Residential Treatment Beds

A shortage of residential treatment centers in Norfolk is easing a little. A new facility with 16 beds for people who need structured care for substance use, often alongside mental health needs, has opened in the city, which carries one of the heaviest substance use burdens in the Hampton Roads region.

This new center, Life’s Journey, joins the 220+ treatment centers already available in Virginia. The Old Dominion boasts a wide range of providers for those impacted by behavioral and mental health conditions. However, the opening matters because residential beds for addiction and behavioral health are hard to find locally, leaving many people waiting or traveling far from home for care.

More Residential Treatment Beds are Needed

The center is run by Life Journey, which has provided mental health services in the region for about a decade and operates sites in Portsmouth and Hampton. Staff say the new facility addresses a gap they kept seeing: clients who needed substance use treatment often ended up on waiting lists, sent outside the city, or pushed to the other side of the state.

Demand has grown as the number of mental health providers have dropped, and the pandemic added to substance use challenges. At the same time, less stigma around addiction and mental health has brought more people forward to seek treatment.

Locals understand the need. Old Dominion University analyzed six Greater Hampton Roads localities and noted that Norfolk had the region’s highest alcohol-related hospitalization rates, at 28.9 per 10,000 adults and 3.8 per 10,000 adolescents who needed rehab care. The city also had the highest heroin overdose death rate of those surveyed. A Life Journey leader said the need is greater than the resources available.

Mental Health Connected to Addictions

Life’s Journey is classified as an ASAM Level 3.5 facility, designed for people at risk of relapse who need daily treatment but not the intensive medical monitoring of a hospital. Clients typically stay about 30 days and take part in assorted daily activities like individual and group psychoeducation, recreational activities and life skills training. The program also provides medication-assisted treatment when appropriate.

Staffing reflects a whole-person approach. Life’s Journey has about 10 staffers made up of psychiatric providers and nurses, therapists and behavioral health technicians. Their director is also a certified substance abuse counselor. Having a psychiatric provider on the team means the facility can support people whose substance use overlaps with mental health conditions.

Understanding Dual Diagnosis & Treatment Options

Many people who enter treatment have co-occurring disorders, meaning a substance use disorder and a mental health condition such as depression or PTSD at the same time. Integrated, or dual diagnosis, treatment addresses both together rather than one at a time. That matters because untreated mental health symptoms can drive substance use, and vice versa.

Residential treatment centers like this one offer round-the-clock structure for people who need a stable environment to focus on recovery. Outpatient programs serve people who can safely stay at home. Across settings, evidence-based therapies such as behavior therapy and trauma-informed care are common, along with medication management for addiction and mental health.

The opening comes as Norfolk residents brace for rising demand. With state assistance, the city’s Community Services Board has started expanding crisis services, including 988, medical detox and stabilization programs. A Norfolk city councilman relayed that public agencies can’t meet the need alone and called for more facilities and partnerships.

Care in Norfolk and Beyond

Residential and outpatient options vary, depending on your diagnosis and specific needs. But no matter your circumstances, reach out today.

Call 800-908-4823 (Sponsored) to chat with an expert. Or feel free to also look through our directory for comprehensive mental health and addiction treatment programs anywhere in the USA.Content goes here

Author

Terri Beth Miller, PhD

Author, Award-Winning Post-Secondary Teacher

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Terri Beth received her PhD in English literature from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and is an educator and disability studies scholar. For more than a decade, she has written extensively in the fields of mental health and addiction recovery and fiercely advocates for the destigmatization of mental illness.

Editor

Peter Lee, PhD

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Peter W.Y. Lee is a writer and historian of American history during the Cold War. His primary focus is the relationship between youth and popular culture and its impact on U.S. society during the twentieth century. He has published widely on how the public has used popular culture as a mechanism to address political and social shifts throughout time