CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A plan to build the largest pediatric behavioral health care facility in North Carolina is close to becoming reality.
The Katie Blessing Center in east Charlotte is a proposed facility that will offer services from urgent care to residential treatment for children ages 5 to 18.
The proposed 72-bed youth behavioral center plans to offer outpatient care, behavioral health urgent care, acute inpatient and residential treatment.
Data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services shows our state ranks 42nd among states with the highest prevalence and lowest access to mental health services for youth with more than 50 children sleeping in emergency departments each week.
"We have not done a good job for our youth, and they have nowhere to go. They're stuck in hospitals. Parents don't know how to help their kids with the issues that they're experiencing,” Chief Operations Officer Tracey Hummel said.
She said the model of the Katie Blessing Center is unique.
“There's truly a continuity of care for kids to come in with crisis, stay short term or long term, and then be able to access outpatient services all within one campus as part of their their healing,” Hummel said.
Katie Blessing Center Foundation Director of Strategic Planning Jamie Bearor is developing programming for the center. She said she wants to redefine mental health for children.
“The lack of care but also the care that is offered for children is too institutionalized. Kids aren’t really getting better,” Bearor said.
Bearor has professional and personal experience regarding mental health for children.
She said her older brother struggled with his mental health from a young age.
“He had struggled in school and was very physical with other kids, and school really didn’t know what to do with him,” Bearor sad. "My parents didn’t know what to do with him. He was suicidal, he was homicidal. He threatened to hurt us, threatened to hurt others.”
Bearor said her brother was in and out of juvenile detention centers without proper care.
A 2023 North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s point-in-time youth survey confined in youth development centers on Dec. 31, 2023, shows 98% of youth had one mental health diagnosis.
“We want to team up with the City of Charlotte and help treat and evaluate these children and make sure that they don't end up in prison systems for the rest of their lives not receiving treatment,” Bearor said.
Bearor hopes this facility will get kids the help she said her brother never got.
“We can do better because kids deserve treatment. They deserve services. They deserve a chance to have a good life. And my brother wasn't given that chance,” Bearor said.
The center will treat generalized anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation through therapies and programs.
The General Assembly, the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have set funding aside to support the $63 million project. However, more funds are needed to reach the foundation’s goal.
Demolition and construction is expected to start this fall.