Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Opens New Behavioral Health Center

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta opened a dedicated pediatric behavioral health center this week, adding inpatient psychiatric beds and an expanded outpatient crisis stabilization program aimed at serving Metro Atlanta families who previously had to seek pediatric psychiatric care outside the region.

The new center includes a walk-in crisis stabilization unit designed to divert young patients experiencing a mental health crisis away from the general emergency department, which hospital officials say has struggled to appropriately serve pediatric psychiatric patients given its layout and staffing model. Patients in crisis can now be evaluated and stabilized in a dedicated space with staff specifically trained in pediatric behavioral health emergencies.

"A traditional emergency room is a loud, bright, chaotic environment, which is close to the worst possible setting for a child in a mental health crisis," said Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Chief of Behavioral Health. "This center gives us a calmer, more appropriate space, and it frees up general emergency department capacity at the same time."

Georgia has historically had fewer pediatric inpatient psychiatric beds per capita than several neighboring states, according to state health department data, forcing some families to travel out of state during crisis episodes. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta says the new beds should reduce, though not eliminate, the need for such transfers.

The health system says the center's outpatient programming will also include group therapy sessions and a dedicated adolescent mental health track, responding to a rise in teen behavioral health referrals reported across Georgia school districts.