ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Children’s Hospital is nearly doubling the capacity of its inpatient pediatric psychiatric unit as part of a $17 million state grant.
The Toledo unit now has the ability to treat about 1,300 children each year with severe mental health problems vs. 700 before the renovation and expansion. The total number of in-patient beds has been expanded to 18 in all private rooms.
That’s an increase from the 16 beds previously available that were further limited by a reluctance to have patients share rooms.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who joined other dignitaries Thursday for a formal ribbon-cutting, said Ohio is addressing a mental health crisis among the young.
He said that’s why he went to the Ohio legislature two years ago and pushed for the $84 million that the legislature earmarked for children’s hospitals around the state to address pediatric mental health. The $17 million to ProMedica is part of that funding.
“That was the need they described to us. We really have a mental health crisis among our young people,” Mr. DeWine said. “We wanted to get some help to our hospitals.”