Fairfax County has resorted to hiring temporary employment firms to fill about a dozen positions in mental health, substance abuse and social service fields, according to a document sent out last week to potential bidders.

Seven of the 11 positions are in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, an agency that provides a wide array of services to those with mental retardation, mental health or substance abuse problems. The spokeswoman for the agency, however, would not answer questions Friday on the request for temporary staffing.

The other vacancies are in the county’s health and family service departments, according to the bid documents.

The jobs include counselors, clinicians, therapists and social workers, as well as some supervisory positions.

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Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerry Hyland said the county should seek to fill positions in-house before it resorts to temp agencies.

“It should be an extraordinary step to take,” he said. “Going out to the private sector and basically contracting out is not the direction we should be going anyway ... That’s not to say the private sector can’t provide employees to do good work, but for me the preferable way to handle it is to fill those positions.”

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last year organized a commission to review how mental health and substance abuse services are administered.

Officials said the Community Services Board was struggling with heavy caseloads at the time, and would have trouble relieving significant waiting lists for mentally ill adults without reducing the cases each worker undertook.

wflook@dcexaminer.com