New 24/7 Behavioral Health Crisis Center Opening In Loudoun County

LEESBURG, VA – A new behavioral health crisis center, the first of its kind in Loudoun County, is scheduled to open later this year in Leesburg. Its operators, Connections Health Solutions, say centers like these help keep adults experiencing mental health or substance use crises out of emergency rooms and jails, facilitating faster stabilization and healing for patients and saving police work hours.

The new Loudoun County Crisis Receiving Stabilization Center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for both voluntary and involuntary care of adults 18 and over. The center welcomes people to walk in themselves or bring people they're concerned about at any hour of the day. County police, fire and emergency services personnel can also bring people in crisis to the center at any time.

The center offers three levels of treatment. Level one is mental health urgent care, accessible to anyone who walks in. Connections Health Solutions promises patients will be seen by a trained crisis worker within 90 minutes.

The next level is crisis stabilization, a short-term stay in which “providers and peers with lived experience help individuals stabilize in a treatment-oriented and safe environment,” Connections says. Short-term stabilization is intended to be effective within 24 hours.

Finally, the center offers extended stabilization services. Ten beds will be available for individuals who need more intensive care and treatment. Patients who need extended stabilization will remain under the care of a behavioral health provider and should be stabilized within three to five days.

Cassie Leavitt, president of the East Region for Connections Health Solutions, told Patch Connections’ care is built around keeping people in their communities by connecting them with carers they can relate to, finding out what kind of stabilization and resources they need, and building treatment plans that will allow them to get back home and into familiar surroundings.

The center is intended to keep people in crisis out of emergency rooms and jail cells, because “that’s not going to help them,” Leavitt says.

Loudoun County contracted with Connections Health Solutions to run the center and Connections is coordinating with the Loudoun County Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Developmental Services.

The Leesburg Center is Connections’ third in Northern Virginia. They first opened a location in Chantilly and opened a second in Woodbridge in October 2025, Leavitt said.

Between October and July, the Woodbridge center saw 3,239 admissions with a five-minute average wait time for law enforcement. The center saved 5,433 law enforcement hours, she said.

The hours saved represent hours a police officer does not have to sit with an individual in an emergency room or elsewhere if placed on an involuntary hold. “So much of their time was just sitting around, and so one of our goals is really to make sure that can be prevented because we want law enforcement out in the community doing what they should be doing, right?” Leavitt said of the impact they hope to have with the new center. “We want law enforcement doing their job in the community and not having to stay with people. We want to see a decrease of emergency department visits for behavioral health because they can come to us.”

She also says almost half of patients from their observation unit are discharged within the goal of 23 hours. “That's the whole goal, to get people back into the community,” and into long-term outpatient care if they need it, she said.

The center is also hiring and looking to fill about 80 positions, preferably with people who know the surrounding communities and their needs. “We really like people who know their communities best, because that helps us be even more successful in working with these individuals,” Leavitt said.

The Loudoun County Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Center will open at 16480 Meadowview Court in Leesburg. The center is hiring for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and charge nurses; behavioral health providers and nurse practitioners; behavioral health specialists; recovery support specialists; licensed mental health professionals; and unit coordinators.

Their next hiring event will be held on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the center.