Calling the death of a shackled and handcuffed patient at Central State Hospital heartbreaking, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Monday it was another tragic example of the need for a transformation of Virginia’s public mental health system.
Seven Henrico County deputies and three hospital employees have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Irvo Otieno, 28, on March 6.
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Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill told a judge last week that the deputies held Otieno down from 12 minutes “smothering him to death.”
Youngkin said that while the judicial process needs to play out, “We can just see the heart-wrenching nature of the challenge in our behavioral health system and why it is so important that we press forward with an aggressive transformation,” after Otieno’s death.
“When I step back and really look at the challenges at our behavioral health system, it is overwhelmed right now and it is overwhelmed in so many ways,” Youngkin told reporters, after celebrating the open house at the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Temple in Henrico County.
“What we have is a system that is built today and overwhelmed with in-crisis moments, while we are so lacking in pre-crisis services,” Youngkin said.
It's why the new toll-free 9-8-8 helpline is so important, he said, as is his push for funding for more mobile crisis teams “so we can to meet people where they are and to decriminalize the process."
Lawyer Benjamin Crump’s opening remarks in regards to the death of Irvo Otieno
Youngkin said wants to make sure the state’s eight adult psychiatric hospitals and its hospital for children and teenagers have the capacity to care for people need hospitals and are no longer where people are dumped or stuck when there are no other places for them.
“We need to invest in capacity so that Virginians who are ready to transition from a hospital setting but not quite yet ready for independent living have a place to go,” he said.
That’s why his budget calls for increased funding for supportive housing, he said.
Youngkin said it is important to let the judicial process run its course before working on specific measures in response to Otieno’s death.
He said a review of existing protocols for caring for patients in state facilities is underway. He also said he plans to watch the surveillance tape from Central State after it is released.
