RICHMOND, Va. — State Senator Creigh Deeds (D - Charlottesville), a longtime advocate for the improvement of Central State Hospital and the behavioral health resources it offers, has spoken out about the death of 28-year-old Irvo Otenio, a mental health patient admitted there March 6.
Otenio's story is personal to the senator.
Deeds' son, who lived with mental health issues, brutally stabbed his father and then died by suicide in 2013.
"I think the family and the community deserve answers," Sen. Deeds said. "We need to know what happened, why it happened."
In a 2018 interview with CBS 6, Deeds noted the age and condition of Central State Hospital saying it was "held together by duct tape" that potentially caused issues recruiting and retaining staff.
Years later, despite little improvement, he said employees were doing the best they could, and few details were given to determine if the hospital's layout may have contributed to Otenio's death.
"I don't know if the current conditions of Central State Hospital can bear any of the blame for what happened to this young man," Deeds said.
He said the incident highlighted a heightened need for adequate training for first responders.
"To me, this story speaks to the urgency of getting crisis intervention training for 100% of our law enforcement officers, because so often when they are called to confront the public, somebody in the public, there's a mental health implication, and you just need the tools that crisis mental health training provides," Deeds said.
Deeds said the state was in the process of building a new Central State Hospital.
That process was delayed by the pandemic and climbing costs.
The new facility is set to open in 2026.
"The community deserves, Central Virginia, deserves a new hospital," Deeds said. "They deserve a facility where people can get well."
As for more resources and hospital beds, Deeds said a budget would have to be ironed out first to determine the next steps.
"We tried during our last budget, specifically in the Senate, to build more capacity. You know the worst place someone can end up is a hospital bed. You want to keep people out of crisis, you want to provide services in the community where they live," Deeds said.
"We tried to increase the amount of funding for community services boards statewide, we tried to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rates for behavioral health specialists because we want people to be able to provide services for people that have needs," he said. "But the budget's still in limbo, and we got to get back to work on that quickly. If we can build the community capacity that we want, we can address a whole lot of needs that exist throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia."
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