Mental health advocates in Northern Virginia are scrambling to find adequate services for sick and potentially dangerous people as funds dwindle. State cuts over the past several years have left service providers looking to local governments and to private partnerships to secure services including emergency psychiatric care and detoxification.

“The last few years have been especially challenging in terms of not cutting the things that people need,” said George Braunstein, executive director of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board. “It’s been a scramble.”