The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services has revoked the license of Hallmark Youthcare, following two incidents last month in which groups of young patients bolted from the facility in Goochland County in back-to-back days.
“Individually, each incident reflects a direct failure of staff to intervene, supervise, or maintain professional boundaries. Together, they show a pattern of failure to prevent elopements and boundary violations across multiple units and shifts within a short window, indicating a systemic breakdown in the facility’s ability to keep residents safe constituting conduct or practices detrimental to the welfare of the children receiving services,” Jae Benz, the director of the Office of Licensing at DBHDS, wrote in a letter to Hallmark Youthcare dated Aug. 17.
The incidents that led to the investigation included a group of eight female minors receiving care at the facility leaving before being returned after a 36-hour search, followed by another breach involving a group of five juvenile males.
A mother of one of the girls told WTVR-TV 6 in Richmond that her daughter told her the girls left because they did not feel safe there.
The TV station reported that it has been investigating Hallmark Youthcare, the biggest short-term residential treatment program in Virginia, with 82 in-patient beds for children ages 11-17 with behavioral or emotional challenges, including substance abuse and a program for sexually-acting-out youth, since the fall of 2025.
The facility is owned by Acute Behavioral Health, a Nashville-based company that was formed with an initial investment from two private-equity firms, Petra Capital Partners and Harbert Credit Solutions, in partnership with Elm Creek Partners and Granite Growth Health Partners.
Acute Behavioral Health, in a June 22, 2022, news release announcing the purchase of Hallmark Youthcare, touted how the move gave “unique opportunity for Acute Behavioral Health to expand its footprint in Virginia.”
There is, indeed, big money to be made in behavioral healthcare, which is why you see private equity firms investing billions into the sector, often financed by debt – which critics say puts pressure on the companies to cut corners in terms of staffing and oversight to be able to make their money back.
A 2024 U.S. Senate Finance Committee report on the industry, titled “Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities A Senate Committee on Finance Staff Report,” detailed how adolescents and teens who “should receive high-quality mental health services in the least-restrictive environment that meets their needs” often don’t get what they need.
Per the report, Residential Treatment Facility providers “optimize per diems by filling large facilities to capacity and maximize profit by concurrently reducing the number and quality of staff in facilities.”
“The Committee’s investigation found that children at RTFs suffer harms such as the risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of staff and peers, improperly executed and overused restraint and seclusion, inadequate treatment and supervision, and non-homelike environments.
“These harms amount to acute safety concerns and have long-term effects, including suffering, trauma and even death.
“Taken together, the Committee finds that these harms are endemic to the RTF operating model,” the report tells us.
WTVR-TV6 reported that the state cited Hallmark Youthcare 27 times between January 2024 and September 2025 “for violations including employees not adhering to protocol for active supervision, resulting in a resident being sexually assaulted by another resident; an employee assaulting a resident; and an employee leaving a gate open, resulting in two residents running away from the grounds.”
The TV station reported that a follow-up investigation by its reporters revealed more violations, including “staff verbally abusing residents and staff failing to follow supervision protocols, resulting in three residents accessing the roof during recreational time,” and two sexual assault incidents, reported in April and May, one leading to a charge against a teen in the assault of another underage facility resident.
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Chris Graham
