Highland Hospital sees expansion in psychiatric treatment facility

A new plan approved by the state will allow Highland Hospital the creation of a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility unit, opening the first part of January 2015.

Hospital officials said the unit will include 24 beds for youth residents and allow for the integration of children and adolescents back into the community.

State regulators approved the plans in August 2008, to break ground for the four-story, 72,500-square-foot building in September 2008, according to the Associated Press.

The project increased the number of beds from 58 to 80, and the first floor of the new facility will provide the child and family outpatient services.

The plan for the unit was to create short-term intensive outpatient care for children and adolescents. Using the expertise of the hospitals team, child and adolescent psychiatrists, therapists, professional and para-professional staff, the proposal is to develop services using the Sanctuary Model of care that can be entered from a variety of starting points as a step down between impatient and outpatient/community care, or as a direct entrance point for those children and adolescents for whom this level of care is most appropriate.

The hospital says the need for more than 1,000 youth in the Mountain State is real. The services include acute psychiatric hospitalization, group residential care and psychiatric residential treatment facilities.

This is the largest number of children being served out of region for any region of the state, officials said.

The hospital plans to utilize the new unit for programs that otherwise don't have the opportunity to be used to their fullest extent, including RAD and GAP programs, based on a Sanctuary Model (safety, loss, emotions and future).

Referrals to both programs will be accepted from anywhere; typically, they originate from within the hospital, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources or other behavior health providers.

The program managers will receive referrals, review with the treatment teams and physician, and provide the referring agency with a response to the placement request within 25 hours.

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Highland Hospital sees expansion in psychiatric treatment facility