Grow Omaha and other local media toured the Behavioral Health & Wellness Center at Children’s Nebraska today. The future hospital is located at 8550 Indian Hills Drive on the west end of the Children’s campus.
Construction on the $114 million project is coming along nicely. The project is on schedule, and the partially completed facilities look impressive.
The 4-story, 107,250 sq. ft. building sits on seven acres. The main entrance, for both patients and staff, will be on building’s the east side. The building is on track for completion this October, but Children’s Nebraska will begin serving patients in a phased approach starting in January 2026.
Groundbreaking for the project took place in August of 2023 with construction starting one month later. The topping-out ceremony (when the final piece of structural steel was installed) occurred on May 16th of last year.
Children’s Nebraska is partnering with the Mental Health Innovation Foundation, a not-for-profit organization led by community leader and philanthropist Ken Stinson to address growing mental health challenges among Omaha’s children and teens. Stinson convened mental health professionals in the summer of 2021 to address mental health challenges, ultimately leading to the new building.
The Behavioral Health & Wellness Center at Children’s Nebraska will offer a wide array of services and features:
• Crisis Assessment Center – It will be dedicated to screening and crisis stabilization and will be one of a small number of similar centers in the country and the first of its kind in the region.
• Inpatient Care – 40 single-occupancy hospital inpatient beds that will double the capacity of the Omaha community. It can be expanded to 48 beds if necessary.
• Partial Hospitalization Program – a structured, day treatment for children and adolescents with moderate behavioral health needs. This includes an eating disorders program.
• Outpatient Services – Individualized therapy for children and families.
• Primary Care Integration – Children’s will provide comprehensive, coordinated and accessible care that addresses acute and chronic conditions.
• Additional specialized services
The need is great for the center’s services. Even before the pandemic, one in five children was experiencing a mental illness. The pandemic led to increased mental health challenges and suicide risk among kids. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for youths. Unfortunately, Nebraska exceeds national trends for the number of suicide deaths in adolescents ages 15 to 19.
Photo by Brad Williams
