Across the country, the coronavirus pandemic has scrambled mental health services, forcing thousands of people with disabling psychological distress, and their families, to adjust on the fly. Late last month, the Trump administration loosened regulations on psychiatric wards, allowing beds to be reallocated to handle Covid-19 patients, as emergency rooms in New York and other hard-hit areas became overwhelmed. Outpatient and community clinics have had to shut their doors; and many of the country’s hundreds of residential programs, like Mountain Valley, have either tightened admissions, barred visitors or suspended operations entirely.

“Program capacities are shrinking and staff are being laid off,” said Virgil Stucker, the former director of CooperRiis, a residential therapeutic program near Asheville, N.C., who now has a private consulting practice. “Families will need to take more family members back home who are experiencing acute and complex mental health conditions” and learn how to provide support themselves.

No family moves a loved one into long-term treatment, public or private, lightly; the moment often arrives at a breaking point. Two parents who were interviewed for this article subsequently asked to not be involved, in fear of reprisals from a grown child now underfoot and out of control.

“They’re literally scared for their lives, some of these families,” said Brad Richards, a New York-based mental health advocate who helps families find placements for loved ones in crisis. Many parents are on their own, he said, with multiple other children and little ability to defuse destructive situations.

Connor was fortunate, he said — the Langans are an intact, close family. The morning after he experienced serious panic, he packed himself into a car with his mother, leaving behind his therapist, his new friends and the highly regimented daily routine at Mountain Valley. He arrived home to a tight household, with his parents, two older siblings and the sister’s Czech boyfriend, who was stranded in the United States by travel restrictions. The two now share a room.