Hanger evaluates Commonwealth Center closing

STAUNTON — Sen. Emmett Hanger said Monday that he must be convinced that private providers can match the services of Staunton’s Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents before he supports the plan to close the center.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine last month proposed closing the center for children and adolescents with mental disorders as part of a plan to bridge a $2.9 billion state budget shortfall.

If the General Assembly gives approval, the center is scheduled to close in June, putting more than 100 people out of work and closing a 48-bed facility. A 16-bed center for children and adolescents with mental disorders is also on the chopping block in Southwest Virginia.

Hanger, R-Mount Solon, spent part of Monday morning meeting with Commonwealth Center staff, and said he also will talk to state officials in Richmond.

The senator said because the Commonwealth Center is a statewide facility, he must be convinced “that the needs of the children are met under the governor’s proposal.”

“If we can’t provide the services by privatizing, I will resist the closing,’’ he said.

Hanger said the Commonwealth Center is a highly skilled one. He said children in a crisis mode with their behavior can be stabilized by the center’s psychologists and other professionals.

Gary Pelton, a clinical psychologist and director of one of the center’s adolescent units, said staff provides acute care to children and adolescents needing it.

Pelton said the center serves children and adolescents private hospitals may not serve.

Those include young people with serious criminal involvement who are in detention or a correctional facility and young people with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation or autism. Pelton said the center is on track to serve 650 children and adolescents during the current fiscal year that ends in June.

The Commonwealth Center also serves as a training center for medical students, psychiatry residents and psychology students from the University of Virginia, as well as social work, nursing and other students from Virginia colleges and universities.

Hanger must work relatively fast. The General Assembly convenes next week and any counter-proposal Hanger would make would likely need to be filed by Jan. 16.

Meanwhile, the senator said he plans to further educate himself by talking to Virginia’s secretary of health and human services and the state commissioner for mental health.