A $12.5 million crisis center built to catch adults in their worst behavioral health moments has officially opened in Williamsburg, with a ribbon cutting Oct. 28 marking the completion of a project that broke ground just over a year ago. Colonial Behavioral Health celebrated the finished 14,000-square-foot Center for Support & Wellness, which will serve adults experiencing a behavioral health crisis with evaluations, short-term residential care and observation stays of up to 23 hours.
According to Williamsburg Yorktown Daily, the center will begin offering services in phases as operational preparations are completed. The facility sits on the grounds of Eastern State Hospital, according to GuernseyTingle, and is meant to improve care access for residents of James City County, Poquoson, Williamsburg and York County while coordinating with law enforcement and community organizations.
The project is fully funded through Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Right Help, Right Now initiative, the station reported when ground was broken last September, with the center originally expected to open that same month this year. The initiative itself is described by PSV News as a three-year, $1.4 billion transformation of Virginia's behavioral health system. Colonial Behavioral Health provided care to more than 3,500 people over the prior year, per the outlet's report.
A Family's Story Anchors the Ceremony
Among those who spoke at the ribbon cutting was David Coe, whose remarks tied the new building to his own family's losses. Coe said his father died by suicide in 2019, and that his brother died from medical complications in 2024 after those complications were not adequately addressed amid behavioral health challenges. He said that during his family's earlier experience, none of the services discussed at the ceremony existed in that part of Virginia.
Coe told those gathered that the center is intended to help people throughout the community and those closest to them, and that the opening completed a phase of a journey for his family. “Our citizens' worst days can become an opportunity and a doorway to a new lease on life,” Coe said, per the outlet's report. Remarks at the ceremony also came from Bruce Keener, Jessica Anderson, Rob Wittman, Patty Hartigan and Leslie Murphy.
A Second Facility Is Already Planned
Colonial Behavioral Health is not stopping with this building. A separate Center for Integrated Healthcare is proposed to be built across the street from the new facility, bringing together Colonial Behavioral Health and Southeastern Virginia Health System services to improve coordination of care, the station's report notes. Rep. Rob Wittman said he helped secure federal funding for that project and said the community's integrated care model can combine local, state and federal government efforts.
The push to build more regional crisis infrastructure fits a broader pattern across Virginia. A governor-funded crisis services center paired with expanded mobile crisis work is intended to reduce law-enforcement transports, according to Citizen Portal, which reported on a briefing Colonial Behavioral Health gave York County supervisors. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services describes this style of crisis receiving center as offering services for up to 23 hours in a non-hospital, community-based stabilization setting.
How Williamsburg's Center Compares
Similar facilities have opened elsewhere in the state in recent years. Prince William County's crisis receiving center, dedicated as what officials there called the first in Virginia to co-locate community service programs under a “no wrong door” model, according to Prince William County, offers youth and adult crisis stabilization, 23-hour observation and post-acute wraparound care. Arlington County's Crisis Intervention Center likewise provides 24/7 rapid assessment and stabilization for mental health emergencies, per the county government.
GuernseyTingle has described the Williamsburg center as the only facility of its kind between Richmond and Hampton, while PSV News characterized it as the only one of its kind between Glen Allen and Hampton. Either way, the facility fills a regional gap that Williamsburg Yorktown Daily's earlier report said was meant to expand access to urgent, compassionate behavioral health care across the region, reducing the need for crisis patients to seek treatment outside the area.
