Securian Financial donates $1 million to Children's Minnesota for new inpatient mental health unit

MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Children's Minnesota is pleased to announce Securian Financial is donating $1 million to the health system's first inpatient mental health unit. The 22-bed unit at the health system's St. Paul hospital is expected to serve kids and teens beginning in the fall. Securian Financial's principal gift is the first corporate commitment to the mental health program at Children's Minnesota.

Learn about Children's Minnesota's Mental Health program

"We are so grateful for Securian Financial's generous investment in our vision to provide mental health services designed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children in our community," said Jenny Soderholm, senior vice president, chief development officer and President of the Children's Minnesota Foundation. "As a nonprofit, the commitment of remarkable business supporters like Securian Financial is vital to ensuring our kid experts can deliver the mental health care our patients deserve. We could not do this critical work without our donor community."

The inpatient unit is the next step in Children's Minnesota's plan to improve access to pediatric mental health services in the region. In 2021, the system saw a 30% increase in kids presenting to our emergency departments in mental health crisis. Annually, the new unit is expected to care for more than 1,000 children and adolescents. Notable aspects of the unit include:

• First in the east metro to serve kids under 12 years old, and one of the few in the state to have the ability to care for kids with more complex, preexisting medical conditions.
• 22 private rooms with enough space to allow parents to stay overnight with their child. 
• Design focused on safe access to the outdoors, natural light, and calming sensory-friendly spaces.

"When you see the numbers and hear the stories, it's devastatingly clear that we are facing an unprecedented crisis right now with our kids and their mental health," said Nicole Hansen, executive director of the Securian Financial Foundation. "So many people, including our employees and customers, have children experiencing mental health crises. Even though this donation to Children's technically falls outside of our current giving guidelines, we feel strongly that we have an obligation to step up and help our community on this critical issue."

Children's Minnesota is one of the largest pediatric health systems in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood. An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children's Minnesota is one system serving kids throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, nine primary care clinics, multiple specialty clinics and seven rehabilitation sites. As The Kids Experts^TM in our region, Children's Minnesota is regularly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top children's hospital.

Find us on Facebook @childrensminnesota or on Twitter and Instagram @childrensmn. Please visit childrensMN.org.

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SOURCE Children's Minnesota