NORFOLK, Va. – Today marks a significant step toward bolstering children’s mental health care in Virginia as CHKD celebrates the placement of the highest beam on a 60-bed, 14-story mental health hospital and outpatient center.
The “topping off” ceremony marks the symbolic completion of the structural phase of the $224 million building located on the same campus as CHKD’s main hospital. When the building opens in 2022, it will be the centerpiece of a bold new initiative that will provide a full spectrum of mental health care for children, filling a critical gap in a statewide shortage of pediatric mental health services.
The building, constructed by W.M. Jordan, is rising at a time when 20 percent of the nation’s children have a mental health condition, and in the middle of a pandemic that is already having an impact on the minds of the community’s children. Already, reports are showing heightened anxiety in children experiencing fear about COVID-19, insecurity created by job losses within their family, and loneliness from social distancing. Fallout from these issues will unfold in the months and years to come.
Even before the pandemic, this community simply did not have the capacity to meet the crushing need. Community pediatricians are overwhelmed with mental health needs of their patients, and children are spending too much time waiting in our emergency department for proper inpatient placement at other facilities.
While the tower is going up with concrete and iron, the mental health program is also building human capital. More psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and mental health administrators have been hired and are already treating the community’s children, creating a program with the most innovative, research-based treatments. Since the groundbreaking in September 2019, CHKD has recruited six new psychiatrists, three psychologists, and two licensed therapists.
The facility will have features that put it on the forefront of pediatric mental health care, including 60 private inpatient rooms with sleeping accommodations for a parent. Children will also receive outpatient therapy in an environment that supports their families and community. A “partial hospitalization” program will enable children to spend most of the day at the hospital, but still reside at home. Other facility highlights include an outdoor recreation area, an indoor gym, a music room and recording studio, a rooftop garden, a soothing multi-sensory room, and family lounge areas.
The CHKD mental health hospital will employ 415 doctors, nurses, therapists, and other mental health professionals who will treat children across the state and beyond.
