GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services is adding a 40-bed expansion on to the Pediatric Behavioral Health Center to help address children's mental health.
The Pediatric Behavioral Health Center, which is being built through a partnership with the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, is expected to open in late 2025 or early 2026.
Currently, Pine Rest has a child and adolescent unit that includes 36 beds. Once the new health center is complete, a total of 102 beds will be available for patients.
The 40-bed addition will almost double the center's capacity.
"Pine Rest, along with our partners at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, have committed to building the first and only dedicated Pediatric Behavioral Health Center in the state of Michigan," said Bob Nykamp, vice president and CEO of Pine Rest. "We think it's long overdue for our state and certainly for the West Michigan community."
Pine Rest officials say the health center will meet a significant need in West Michigan, but Nykamp said the health center goes beyond helping those in immediate need of mental health care.
"We really just don't want to respond to a crisis. We want to prevent crises," he said. "So the center is also focused on outpatient urgent care centers, specialty programs for children in outpatient settings, partial hospitalization, all these services that hopefully can help us prevent kids from needing hospitalization. And so that's a really important focus of the building as well."
Construction on the center will begin this fall.
To learn more about Pine Rest or the new health center, click here.
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