Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital plans to open a specialized unit this spring to treat pediatric patients who have both mental health and medical conditions.
The 12-bed, $17 million unit on the hospital’s 11th floor will become the first in Michigan that blends medical and mental health care for young patients.
“These are very, very sick kids,” said Dr. Subodh Jain, M.D., vice president and department chief for behavioral health at Corewell Health.
As an example, Dr. Jain cites pediatric patients who are going through chemotherapy or kidney dialysis, have had surgery, or are receiving treatment for a complex medical condition, and also have a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, or ADHD.
Keep up with all things West Michigan business. Sign up for our free newsletters today.
By bringing together a team of professionals that includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and others to work alongside medical care providers, DeVos Children’s Hospital can treat both conditions while pediatric patients are in the hospital.
“Mental health and physical health go hand in hand. One affects the other,” Jain said. “In pediatric mental health, we have a lot of patients who come with co-existing medical conditions. They have severe medical complexities as well as psychiatric complexities.”
The unit is designed primarily for pediatric patients 10 years and older, although “if there is a need, we can always adjust,” said Jain, a child psychiatrist.
The unit seeks to fill a “huge gap” in Michigan for treating pediatric patients with medical and mental health conditions and can potentially draw from across the state, Jain said. He describes the unit as an “area of medicine that is especially behind.”
“We’re hoping this unit will be fairly well occupied because there are a lot of children all across the state who are sitting in various emergency rooms and hospital beds without getting the treatment they need. So, I’m hoping we can serve statewide,” he said.
Corewell Health is financing the unit with a $5 million budget allocation from the state, its own capital, and $4 million in philanthropy through an ongoing capital campaign that’s “on track to achieve what we need,” Jain said.
HKS Architects serves as the architectural firm on the project and Peter Basso Associates is the engineering firm. The Christman Co. is serving as the construction manager.
“The medical psychiatric unit will be pivotal in how we care for kids and we’re grateful for the support in this endeavor,” said Dr. Robert Fitzgerald, president at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
The idea for the new unit came from internal conversations at the health system as already rising incidence rates for behavioral health conditions increased further in the pandemic.
Corewell Health secured state regulatory approval from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in February 2022 to add 12 licensed beds and create the new unit at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital on the Butterworth campus in downtown Grand Rapids.
“These conditions and the pediatric mental health crisis have been around for a while. In the pandemic, we started to talk more about it, but it also unsurfaced some of those issues because of the societal challenges (and) because of the pandemic. What we saw at the Children’s Hospital is that we were taking care of patients every day with either independent psychiatric needs or complex medical and psychiatric needs,” Jain said. “In the pandemic, then, we decided that this was the time to invest in providing direct mental health care at the Children’s Hospital for the patients who could not be treated elsewhere.”
Corewell Health could expand the unit in the future if needed, although Jain hopes to see other systems across the state develop similar units for pediatric patients who need treatment for medical and mental health conditions.
Jain views the health system as “kind of trailblazers in this arena” for a pediatric care model that others can model.
“Our system has made a commitment, and we are not shying away from that. But at the end of the day, we want to see more of these units in the state, rather than us just expanding it,” he said. “I hope everyone takes learnings out of us and keeps replicating a model from us, and maybe (developing) their own across the state.”
Corewell Health also is partnering on an $86 million pediatric center at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services’ 68th Street campus in Cutlerville.
More from Crain’s Grand Rapids Business:
Push for new economic development incentives faces uncertain legislative future
Key investments boost Meijer Gardens’ stature as local economic driver, report finds
Muskegon-area restaurant operator brings brunch concept to Grand Rapids
link