Free Mental Health Assessments At New Dominion Facility In Fairfax City

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — A new healthcare facility that offers free mental health assessments will officially open its doors this week in the City of Fairfax.

On Tuesday, Dominion Hospital cut the ribbon on its new Fairfax Mental Health Assessment Center in Fairfax City, providing individuals ages 5 through adulthood with timely evaluations and care recommendations for free.

“We know that when patients go to the emergency room with a behavioral health issue, they just sit there waiting on the bed,” Dominion Hospital CEO Nanette Logan said, on Tuesday. “This is an alternative where they can come into our assessment center and be assessed as to whether they need to be inpatient or if they need to be in one of the outpatient programs.”

Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., the Fairfax Mental Health Assessment Center is located at 10721 Main St., Suite 1300, in Fairfax City. The center accepts all health care plans for customers in one of Dominion’s outpatient programs, but mental health assessments are free.. Walk-ins are welcomed, but same-day appointments can be scheduled online or by calling 703-621-1900.

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The center will have a partial hospitalization program and two physicians managing the outpatient program, according to Logan.The services are strictly for behavioral health and not emergency services.

“This is primarily for patients who don't know what they need,” she said. “They know that they feel that they need some type of therapy or behavioral health intervention. They will come to us, and we will assess them. If they may be suicidal or if they have some other type of depression or any other issues, they come in, we will assess that need and see where are they. Do they need an inpatient stay at a behavioral health hospital or are they appropriate for outpatients care?”

While Dominion already offers outpatient mental health programs at Dominion Choices Adol PHP/IOP in Falls Church and the Dominion Center for Behavioral Health Services in Chantilly, the new Fairfax City location is the first facility dedicated to behavioural health assessments.

“The biggest problem in mental health is access to care,” said Dr Gary Litovitz, Dominion’s chief medical officer. In other areas of medicine, if you need to be referred to a cardiologist or a rheumatologist, you call their office and you make an appointment. But in mental health care, there are so many different specialties, sub specialties, and so many different types of treatment that it's very hard for the average consumer.”

The assessment center is meant to help patients with an initial evaluation and guide people to the care they need, according to Litovitz. Once a patient is evaluated for free, they will receive a referral that they can use to schedule an appointment with Dominion or any other mental healthcare provider.

CAPTION: From left, Harish Goyal, MD; Gaurav Jain, MD; Ben Brown, SVP, Behavioral Services, HCA Healthcare; David Bulova, Delegate; Catherine Read, Fairfax City Mayor; Nanette Logan, CEO, Dominion Hospital (DH); Gary Litovitz, MD, Chief Medical Officer (DH); Maria Gaudino, VP, Clinical Services (DH); Erica Johns, Director, Outpatient Services (DH); Larisse Gonzaga, Director, Quality (DH); and Derek Barbee, Interim Chief Nursing Officer (DH).

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