Commonwealth Grants Chesapeake Regional $3.7M to fund Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP)

CHESAPEAKE, Va. – Today Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia, John Littel, and Commissioner Nelson Smith of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, announced a $3.7 million grant awarded to Chesapeake Regional Healthcare to build a Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP). Chesapeake Regional is renovating existing space in its Emergency Department to build the CPEP, which will open in December.

The grant is part of Governor Youngkin’s commitment to investing in and reforming Virginia’s current behavioral health system. It follows a visit he made to Chesapeake Regional last October to learn more about the health system’s plans to build a behavioral health program at the hospital.

Dr. Amber Egyud, Chief Operating and Nursing Officer says, “Chesapeake Regional’s behavioral health program is vital to our community. The grant awarded today will help ensure that we can build a program that provides patients with a continuum of care that allows them to stay close to home during treatment, one that best serves people in crisis, in our community.”  

The comprehensive behavioral health program at Chesapeake Regional Healthcare will include inpatient and outpatient services to open in multiple phases.

The City of Chesapeake, the Commonwealth’s second largest and most populous city, currently lacks a licensed inpatient behavioral health unit.

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