Center Renamed For Former Board Chair Sharon Bulova Provides Help For People In Crisis

FAIRFAX, VA — A group of local elected officials gathered in Merrifield Thursday afternoon for a ceremony to rename the facility there in honor of former Fairfax County Board Chairman Sharon Bulova.

The Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health, formerly the Merrifield Center, serves as the entry point for people seeking medical services from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board.

While Bulova was not particularly known for accomplishments in the area of health and human services, she did lead the county into adopting the Diversion First Program. Under this initiative, county police officers are trained to recognize when someone wis experiencing a mental health crisis and to take that person to a health care center for help rather than to jail.

"The program actually was initiated during a pretty tense period of time in Fairfax County," Bulova said, during the ceremony.

The commission that led to the county's adoption of Diversion First was formed following two tragic events. The first occurred when Fairfax County Police Officer Adam Torres shot and killed John Geer, a man experiencing a mental health crisis, after a 42-minute standoff. The second was the death of Natasha McKenna, an Alexandria woman with a mental illness who died in the the Fairfax Adult Detention Center.

"I think it's important to say their names today," Bulova said. "It was their tragic deaths that sparked change. Both incidents shone a stark light on the county's need for reforms and policies regarding transparency, oversight, use of force in criminal incident response, including and especially in cases involving persons suffering from mental illness."

The health center that now bears Bulova's name serves an average of 4,800 patients day. In the Diversion First Program, more than 6,000 people per year received help though the center's emergency services programs. Since its opening on Jan. 1, 2016, there have been over 12,000 law enforcement transports to the center.

"Over 8,600 people were under an emergency custody order," said Board Chairman Jeff McKay, during the ceremony. "Over 3,540 additional transports were because an officer astutely recognized an individual in the community that needed behavioral health services."

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly and Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik joined McKay in praising Bulova for her contributions to the county and the board.

"I think all of you who know Sharon well know that one of her strongest attributes is her calming presence," McKay said. "Those of us as elected officials, in particular, who have served with her, I think have seen that calming presence in sometimes the most difficult of times, and the grace in which she handled that."

"The decency Sharon brought to every enterprise and to every person she encountered is something that really, I think, is a hallmark of her chairmanship, and her 30 years on the Board of Supervisors," Connolly said. "All of us benefited from it and all of us were infected by it. Sharon, we really owe you a debt of gratitude for all you did for this community."

"Through naming the center after you, I hope that we as a community can both understand that the services that are here, how much they impact every single person who's here," Palchik said. "We need to ensure that we go from the 4,800 individuals that are served to the needs of every single one in our community and our well over 1 million residents who need support now more than ever after this pandemic."

Other local officials who came to show their support for Bulova included former Board Chair Kate Hanley; Supervisors James Walkinshaw (Braddock), Rodney Lusk (Lee), Daniel Storck (Mount Vernon), Pat Herrity (Springfield), and Kathy Smith (Sully); Former Supervisors John Cooke (Braddock) and Gerry Hyland (Mount Vernon); and former Fairfax City Mayor John Mason. In addition, three members of the House of Delegates were in attendance: David Bulova (37th District), Eileen Filler-Corn (41st District), and Mark Sickles (43rd District).