This has been a particularly productive year for PMH – one that illustrates its important role in the community’s mental health safety net. Note the following partnerships:
- Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad: PMH Partnered with CARS to provide follow-up care for community members calling 911 due to a mental health crisis or drug overdose.
- Albemarle County’s Department of Social Service, Police Department, and Fire and Rescue: This summer, PMH contracted with Albemarle County Department of Social Services (DSS) HART project, a co-responder model of responding to 911 calls designed to lessen the risk to persons with serious mental illness or trauma being arrested. The HART team includes members from Social Services, the Police Department, Fire and Rescue, and Sue Hess, the PMH Community Navigator. In the first two months, the HART team made 90 follow-up contacts, including 20 referrals for drug overdoses.
- Therapeutic Docket: In April, PMH celebrated five years of working with the Therapeutic Docket providing critical navigation that has resulted in 135 clients enrolled in the Docket as an alternative to serving jail time.
- Contract with the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail: In November, PMH signed a contract to provide re-entry navigation for inmates with a mental health diagnosis. This contract is initially for half-time navigation.
- NBC29’s Community Connections interview PMH’s Sue Hess: The first of many interviews for NBC29’s Community Connections with the PMH team. You can view the video from this link here.
PMH has also grown in both staff and leadership:
Kay Robertson, joined the PMH staff this summer and has a dual role as Therapeutic Docket Navigator and PMH Administrator. They served on the board at On Our Own in 2017-2018 and continue as a volunteer as co-host to a virtual support group there weekly as well as assist with events. Kay is also a member of the UVA Gender Expansive Care Board and volunteers with Cville Area Harm Reduction. They have been working as a peer recovery specialist since 2018, certified and registered in May of 2021 (CPRS, i-FPRS 2023), specializing in care for participants in justice systems, mental health, and with members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Virginia Leavell, who is also chief of the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad, joined us in December, to serve as PMH’s part-time Justice Systems Community Navigator. Virginia’s professional background is rooted in mental health and substance use disorder treatment. She currently serves as Vice President of the OAR Board of Directors, incoming Chair of the Drug Treatment Court Advisory Board, and member of the Therapeutic Docket Advisory Board and the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless Board of Directors. She provides great insight into the role of re-entry navigation and her deep connections in the community are invaluable.
Julie Roebuck, DNP, PMHNP, will bring her invaluable 25-year experience as a Board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree) on our board. Julie is an Assistant Professor at UVA’s School of Nursing, and she serves a Program Coordinator for its Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program. Julie’s clinical work has focused on children and adolescents and she served as the head of the clinical treatment team in providing in-patient care and facilitating appropriate discharge planning.
With 2024 quickly approaching, we are grateful and excited to see the outcome of our growth and would not be able to facilitate these changes without your generous support.
Please consider the gift of donation to Partner for Mental Health this holiday season. Thank you for being a part of the PMH community!
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