PrairieCare Breaks Ground on Youth Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital Expansion

30 added hospital beds will allow the organization to care for 1,000 additional youth annually

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn., Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PrairieCare, one of the nation's most innovative, fastest-growing psychiatric health systems, caring for nearly 20,000 individuals each year across its full continuum of psychiatric services, announced today it has broken ground on an expansion of its inpatient hospital in Brooklyn Park. The 30,000-foot expansion will make way for an additional 30 inpatient beds, allowing the organization to care for an estimated 3,500 youth each year. This marks the largest increase of psychiatric beds for youth in Minnesota in many decades.

"Many patients, including children and teens in psychiatric crisis, end up in emergency rooms, and often are stuck there for days at a time waiting for an available psychiatric bed and the critical help they need," said Todd Archbold, PrairieCare CEO. "The lack of beds available for children and adolescents needing immediate mental health care has become a crisis, and this expansion is just one way we're hoping to address it."

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in six youth aged 6-17 in the United States experience a mental health disorder each year, and 57,000 Minnesotans aged 12-17 have depression. There are currently only 202 psychiatric hospital beds for youth in Minnesota.

Until last summer, and despite rising demand, there has been a shortage of available inpatient beds for Minnesota youth because of a statewide moratorium on the construction or expansion of inpatient mental health facilities. The Minnesota Legislature authorized PrairieCare's expansion as part of the Omnibus Health and Human Services Finance Bill in 2021 and most recently in 2022 passed sweeping legislation that waived the hospital bed moratorium and public interest review process for hospitals to add both mental health and substance use disorder beds.

This expansion in Brooklyn Park is a result of the new law and will help thousands of Minnesota families. This groundbreaking event also comes on the heels of the announcement that PrairieCare is partnering with Children's Minnesota to deliver care in its first inpatient mental health unit this fall – providing even more access to high-quality psychiatric care to address the unmet mental health needs of families across the state.

"This expansion will allow PrairieCare to continue to provide and deliver the best specialized mental health services for youth, adults and families," said Archbold. "We could not have done with this without the support of our partners including Ryan Companies, Pope Architects and our internal team who has been working tirelessly to make this a reality," said Archbold. 

About PrairieCare
PrairieCare is one of the nation's most innovative, fastest-growing psychiatric health systems, offering psychiatric services for all ages, including free mental health assessments, clinic services, intensive outpatient programs (IOP), partial hospital programs (PHP) and residential services. PrairieCare is based in Minnesota, with 10 locations across the Twin Cities metro, Mankato and Rochester. For more information about services offered, visit prairie-care.com.

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SOURCE PrairieCare