Omaha civic leaders, Children's break ground on $110 million children's behavioral health facility

On Friday, they and others officially broke ground on the $110 million Behavioral Health & Wellness Center at Children’s, which will be west of 84th Street and West Dodge Road.

Slated to open in early 2026, the center will house 38 inpatient hospital beds, which will more than double the capacity in the community. It will also offer a suite of other services along the behavioral health care continuum, including a first-in-the-region behavioral health emergency assessment center, a pediatric mental health urgent care center and a pediatric primary care clinic with integrated outpatient mental health services.

Other offerings will be an outpatient eating disorder center and an expanded partial hospitalization program for youths who no longer require inpatient treatment yet still need daily support and ongoing therapy. The center will be operated by Children’s Hospital & Medical Center and situated on the west edge of its campus. The nonprofit Mental Health Innovation Foundation is managing the planning, design, fundraising and construction of the facility with the goal of increasing mental health services in the community.

Omaha philanthropist Ken Stinson, the foundation’s president, said most parents probably don’t know where to go if they believe their child is experiencing a mental health challenge. Some now go to Children’s emergency room. A critical part of the new facility will be the emergency assessment center, where staff will be able to help determine what kind of behavioral health help children and adolescents need.

“We’ve got to educate the community over time, ‘Bring them here,’” he said.

Chanda Chacón, Children’s president and CEO, said the new center will operate like a hospital emergency room, with different levels of care in one location. It also will offer easy access to physical health care, which patients also may need.

“The goal is to get them in a better environment, built for kids with mental health conditions and behavioral health challenges, so that we can help them easier, faster, in an environment that’s built for them,” she said.

Plans for the facility have expanded in scope and cost since Stinson and Chacón in November announced what was initially billed as an $89 million, 103,500-square-foot center on seven acres.

The foundation hired New York-based conceptual architect Frank Pitts, who is nationally known for his consultation on the design of mental health facilities. “We attribute to him some expanded thinking on how … the pieces should fit together,” Stinson said.

Project organizers also visited the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Officials there advised taking the inpatient portion of the facility vertical — it will have four stories vs. two in the rest of the center — to improve efficiency for staff, who also have had input into the design. Chacón said the arrangement also makes it easier to arrange patients by age.

Stinson said organizers also figured in additional square footage, including room for 10 more inpatient beds, should it be needed in the future. That brought the facility to 107,250 square feet.

“The changing environment in mental health for kids would suggest that we’re more likely to go up than go down,” he said.

The extra research may have extended a bit the time it will take to bring the project online, Stinson said. But what organizers learned will make the center better.

“The priority was, this is going to be here for a long time,” he said. “We’ve got to do it right the first time. If it means it will take a little longer to get there, we’ll pay that price.”

Chacón said the flexibility built into the facility also is an important step toward making it a hub connecting “spokes” across the state where mental health care is delivered.

If organizers can help curb increases in mental health concerns among youth and help kids earlier, she said, they’ll not only provide better care for kids and families but also be able to meet the need with the center as planned.

In addition to the pediatric behavioral health urgent care that will be housed in the Omaha center, Children’s is establishing a second one near one of its clinics in Kearney.

Children’s also is training primary care providers to care for young people with mild and moderate mental health challenges through its Children’s Hospital & Medical Center’s Outreach for Provider Education, or COPE, program. The health system held the first session this spring.

The goal is to train as many as 200 providers over the next three years. The local program is based on a national model. Trained providers also have access to a dedicated consultation line they can call to seek advice in managing behavioral health care for kids.

Chacón said the idea is to create a network across the state before the facility opens to help keep kids out of the center and to better support those who come when they return home. Children’s also is collaborating with other mental health care providers in the state.

“The more we work together, the better we believe this whole model will be and the (more successful) we’ll be with the Behavioral Health & Wellness Center,” she said.

Stinson noted that the center also will be a hub for training pediatric mental health care professionals. Project organizers also have been working to build the pipeline of health care providers.

Chacón said Children’s currently is conducting a national search for a senior vice president to lead the center. Officials hope to make that selection within the next several months. Having that leader on the ground early will help ensure the facility starts strong, she said.

Stinson said the foundation is close to raising the $110 million budgeted for the project. Organizers have a list of items they can add if they exceed that goal, which he believes they will do.

Of the total, $16 million is expected from the $40 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the Nebraska Legislature designated in 2022 for mental health projects in the state. Children’s is contributing $15 million and the rest will come from private donors.

“Our donors, we’ve had such a great reception from them,” said Stinson, who has focused on addressing mental health challenges for years. He and fellow philanthropist Rhonda Hawks were among a group who raised money to start Omaha’s Lasting Hope Recovery Center, an inpatient adult treatment center near downtown Omaha that opened in 2008.

“I don’t think the world (paid) much attention to mental health 20 years ago,” he said. “But everybody (pays) some attention to it now.”