VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The past two years have been stressful for a lot of people and many have turned to drugs and alcohol to cope.
While there's a push in Washington D.C. to expand federal treatment programs, local centers are taking a boots on the ground approach.
Crossroads Treatment center has a number of locations in our area and the people who work there say the focus now needs to be on mental health and substance use disorder. They said, more often than not, the two go hand-in-hand, which is why their approach combines medication, counseling, drug screening and a referral network.
While they continue to address the rising drug overdose rates Trey Causey, the Child Medical Officer for Crossroads, said, "I think probably the next thing we will do, and this is in all of our centers, is really look to expanding the services we offer to begin to offer both some mental health services and even some primary care services as we get throughout the next year."
Those services include treatment for depression and anxiety and it will all happen where patients are already receiving treatment.
Mary Alvarez, Program Supervisor, said the convenice will make the world of difference.
"For us to be able to offer those services to the patients to where it's kind of like they come here, they can get treated for anxiety, depression, and substance disorder is fantastic, I think they will actually get the treatment they need, because it's all right there," she said. "Addiction tends to kind of go hand-in-hand with mental health. The patients are anxious, you know, especially when they're coming in to treatment the first time, you know, it's something they're scared, they don't feel good. So they become very anxious."
Alvarez said to receive mental health services, you don't need to be a current patient, or need to be treated for substance use disorder.
"We are open to everyone for treatment for the depression and anxiety, all they have to do is call 1-800-805-6989, which connects them to our Patient Engagement Services. Then they kind of go through a mini assessment to see exactly what they need. Then they go into an appointment with our mental health doctor, and it's literally 100% Zoom," she said.
You can contact Crossroads Treatment Center by clicking here.
