ELKINS, W.Va. — Over the next year, state health officials will be working with the private sector to build a new Children’s Crisis Center in Elkins.
The facility will serve youth under the age of 21 who may be experiencing a behavioral health crisis and have been removed from their homes.
Gov. Jim Justice and the state Department of Health and Human Resources announced the center last week.
DHHR Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch told MetroNews it will serve as a safe alternative from the use of hospital emergency departments and hotel rooms.
“We can provide a safe place for these kids. They can be evaluated, stabilized and then we can find an appropriate place for them,” he said. “We’ve had no other options.We just have no place for them, so this gives them a place for these children.”
The center will be on the current site of the West Virginia Children’s Home, which Crouch said is located wherever you need to get to in the state.
“It’s about 2.5 to 3 hours from pretty much anywhere in the state and that’s beneficially to be centrally located,” he said.
Gov. Jim Justice and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) announced today that DHHR will build a new Children’s Crisis Center in Elkins, West Virginia.https://t.co/82HeXv24D2 pic.twitter.com/MBKNkjOK3O
— WV Department of Health & Human Resources • 😷 (@WV_DHHR) September 6, 2022
Behavioral health has been an issue for quite some time in West Virginia, but Gov. Justice said there hasn’t been enough space to treat the youth who need help. This center will do that.
“In the past, West Virginia has not had the right kind of services in our state and kids had to leave to receive the care they need. That’s just not right; we need to provide services in our home state.” the governor wrote in a statement last week.
Crouch said children with behavioral health issues need special treatment.
“Many of these children are very aggressive and have violence associated at times, so we want to provide a safe place for these children,” Crouch said.
The facility will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will utilize private patient rooms to provide these services with stays up to 14 days.
Services will include crisis assessment, stabilization and intervention, nursing assessment and intervention, psychiatric intervention, peer support, observation, ongoing assessment, and disposition and discharge planning.
Crouch said the administration next hopes to put the project out for bid with the private sector.
“I plan to contract this out. We will probably put this out for bid for the private sector to operate. I don’t see the State of West Virginia operating this,” he said.
Crouch said his goal is to finish the project by next year.