2023 Annual Report

Life is often described in terms of “cycles” or “circles.” That is true of individuals, families, communities, and organizations. It has certainly proven to be true for CBH; Fiscal Year 2025 provided us with a fitting example of that reality.

We entered the year excited to take possession of a new parcel of land to build our new crisis facility, now named the “Center for Support & Wellness.” As a result, we spent much of the year waiting for developments beyond our control to unfold – and they eventually did as the year neared its end. This set up the prospect of a much-accelerated pace for FY 2026.

We entered the year unsure about our desired integrated care partnership on a new consolidated campus. However, we ended the year more confident of the vision and our community’s capability to succeed than ever. We also ended the year with improved intake and Central Access processes, a restructured outpatient service program, expanded services in Permanent Supportive Housing, improved staff recruitment results for many programs, and a new process for approval of agency governance and operational policies.

All this brings us to the future, sure to include the beginning of some new cycles and either the continuation or end of others. We already anticipate challenges related to state and federal funding, facility needs, workforce development needs (for both existing and new programs), and resource development.

If the message were to end here, the image left behind would be one of interlocking and overlapping circles that could appear overwhelming. However, there is one stabilizing force that has consistently held them all together – the support of our community. We cannot thank you enough, but we will keep trying to earn your support in every circle.

The 2023 edition of this message ended with a discussion of striking a balance between the “short” and “long” views related to our agency, our community, and our own lives. What we did not discuss was the rare time when those views converge to create unexpected opportunities. What we did not realize at the time was that FY2024 was going to one of those times.

December 2023 greeted CBH with the opportunity to implement a major expansion of our crisis services continuum. Governor Youngkin’s Right Help Right Now plan included the development of a Crisis Receiving Center and a Crisis Stabilization Unit on property that had at times appeared unattainable. We simultaneously were developing plans to implement Mobile Crisis Response services early in the next fiscal year. We were able to open our Permanent Supportive Housing program early in 2024 and began early discussions to initiate Supported Employment (SEP) services over the following biennium. We ended the year moving closer than ever to realizing the dream of bringing integrated primary care/behavioral health/dental services to our community. The rest of our service areas – clinical and administrative – moved on from the COVID days to undertake construction of a new future.

Some of the accomplishments of FY2024 were the result of 15+ years of advocacy and preparation, others due to more recent intersections of planning and opportunity. The net result of FY2024 was to set the stage for the most significant period of growth in the past 40 years. There is much work to be done, but the door is now open to developing the next generation of services needed by our communities, families and the individuals we support.

We all entered Fiscal Year 2022 with high hopes that the COVID pandemic would be over, and that we would all look back on the pandemic memories of the upheaval through our rear view mirrors. Once again, that was not the case! Certainly, we appear to be much closer to the end than the beginning, but the impacts of COVID are only diminishing instead of ending.

However, the primary challenges of FY 2022 were not medical, but generational. CBH has long enjoyed very stable leadership in terms of senior management at our agency, but nothing lasts forever. Between May 2021 and June 2022, we experienced either the actual retirements or retirement announcements of five senior and long-tenured staff. Those staff represented 192 years of combined experience at CBH.

We are pleased to report that each of these positions were filled with internal applicants, happily providing us with both continuity and fresh perspectives. Since 2019, another ten staff have also retired, representing another 273 years of CBH experience. Many of those positions were also filled internally. We could not have asked for a better outcome.

Like everyone else, we are faced with serious workforce challenges at a time when the behavioral health and developmental service needs of our community are becoming more demanding and complex. In preparing for that future, we stand proudly on the development of our staff as a strength of CBH. We have not been, are not, and will never be perfect – but we are honored to provide the strong array of services to individuals, families and our community. Your continued support makes it possible.

Fiscal Year 2021 was not the year we expected. We had hoped for the COVID-19
pandemic to fade out and have our world return to “normal.” We hoped to be
able to celebrate our 50th Anniversary with a large community event. We
hoped that some long-term strategic initiatives would come to reality in that
year. We hoped . . .

The reality of Fiscal Year 2021 was that COVID was far from ready to release us,
that we would have to wait to celebrate 50 years of community service, and
that long-term initiatives don’t always resolve on a strict timeline. We also
learned that many of the lessons learned during the stressful early days of the
pandemic were actually helpful in future planning. We learned . . .

The new service methodologies, technologies and facility needs initiated at the
outset of the pandemic became central to our core operational plans. We
consolidated office locations as the beginning of a new work reality that will
remain for years to come. We began to adjust our approaches to
administrative functions. We experienced the beginning of changes in our
senior agency leadership as the result of long tenures. We adjusted our
approach to agency governance. We changed . . .

Entering Fiscal Year 2022, we don’t know what direction the pandemic will take,
and what timetable we may face moving forward with long-held plans for the
future. We still want to celebrate 50 years with you, even if it may come a year
late. Our future plans remain in place. The foundations laid over the past several
years remain in place and are more than sufficient to support an exciting future.
So no matter what circumstances face us all in Fiscal Year 2022, we will continue
to hope, to learn and to change.