Region mental health chief leaves job

The Richmond Behavioral Health Authority's chief executive officer, Wilson J. Washington Jr., has left that position.

"He is not acting as chief executive," Frances Christian, chairwoman of the authority's board, said today.

The authority provides mental health services in the city, as well as services for the developmentally delayed and people suffering from substance abuses.

Christian he said the board will meet tomorrow to decide how the chief executive's function will be carried out.

"The board is fully engaged . . . we have a strong management," she said. "Nothing will be falling through the cracks."

Asked why Washington was leaving, Christian said she could not comment because it was a personnel matter.

Mary Ann Bergeron, executive director of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, said the board had not renewed Washington's contract. "It would appear they are looking outside the organization for someone to sort of be an interim director until there are some decisions made," Bergeron said today.

Washington was named chief executive a year ago.

He previously had served as vice president of the behavioral-health-care center of Community Health of South Florida Inc. in Miami, and is a retired Navy Medical Service Corps officer who also worked as a health-care administrator in Mississippi.

-- David Ress and Michael Martz