Be On The Record
BlogSign inSubscribe
HearingsBillsAlerts
← Hearings

Health and Human Services

Tuesday, March 3, 2026·50m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Health and Human Services Committee received an informational update from DBHDS Commissioner Darrell Washington on state hospital overcrowding, the 988 crisis system, the DOJ permanent injunction, and the developmental disability waiver wait list. No bills were voted on; members pressed Washington on forensic bed utilization, the extraordinary barriers list, and whether current waiver allocations are sufficient to eliminate the Priority One wait list.

Key Actions

·DBHDS Agency Update – Informational PresentationNo Vote

Controversies

Sufficiency of current DD waiver slots to eliminate the Priority One wait list

Delegate Cohen stated directly that there are no additional waiver slots in the budget and asked Washington whether more are needed. Washington responded that the likelihood is with the current waiver slots that have been assigned, the Priority One wait list will not be eliminated, implicitly indicating the current allocation is insufficient, though no direct conflict between named individuals occurred beyond this exchange.

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Commonwealth of Virginia. Of course, our 12 programs or 12 facilities that we do operate provide 24, 7 care. We are taking admissions around the clock and we also are providing care and then transitioning people back into the community on a regular basis as well. This is real brief snapshot of what I just talked about. , we have about 5,600 state employees that work at the Park Behavioral Health and then”

Commissioner Darrell Washington — Washington was describing the current state hospital bed census situation, which had reached overflow status at the time of the hearing.

+ 4 more quotes

Unlock the full summary

Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.

Sign in to subscribe
TranscriptPreview
Good morning. Good morning. How did we take her? We don't need to take. I can. Good morning. Welcome everyone to the Health and Human Services full committee. This is our reward for doing a lot of really hard work. We now get to take a break, take a little bit of breath and actually do a little bit of learning. This morning we've got a great presentation from our new commissioner, Darrell Washington from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. I did just want to make an announcement for Thursday. We're going to meet on Thursday as well. And. And we have two more presentations. Then we're going to hear from both DMAs and VDH. We have our new DMAS director, Steve Ford coming along with Jeff Linardi. And then from VDH, Dr. Cameron Webb will be with us. So please join us same time, 8:30 on Thursday. But with that, we are really delighted to have Commissioner Washington with us. He is not a stranger to Richmond, certainly not a stranger to this committee and a lot of of members here from his longtime service in Fairfax with the CSB there. And I've been delighted to…
Continue reading

Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Virginia committee hearings.

Sign in to subscribe