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New Psychiatric Hospital for Youth Will Fill Void in Wheeling

By JOSELYN KING 5 min read

WHEELING - Acute psychiatric care geared toward children and adolescents soon will again be available locally. Officials with the Children's Home of Wheeling on Thursday announced the launch of their new Orchard Park Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital.

The 30-bed facility will be located within the former Robert C. Byrd Behavioral Health Center that was affiliated with the former Ohio Valley Medical Center and adjacent to its property near Centre Wheeling. The building has sat vacant since OVMC closed its doors in September 2019, and there has been no acute psychiatric care available locally since that time.

The new Orchard Park Hospital represents a $10 million investment by the Children's Home of Wheeling, which will be updating and renovating the building. The hospital expects to be in operation by May 2023.

Services will be available there for youths ages 5-17.

The Children's Home of Wheeling saw a direct need for psychiatric care for children in the region and made the decision to take on the project, explained Tanner Russell, chairman of the board for the Children's Home of Wheeling.

"There has been a gap in the care that some of our residents and local adolescents need most," he said. "The former psychiatric center did not close its doors a few years back because services were not needed or the job was done. It is actually quite the opposite."

The closure greatly affected residents at the Children's Home of Wheeling, as well as other local juvenile care facilities, he continued.

"The Children's Home needed to do something," Russell added. "The decision was made to purchase the former psychiatric center and bring it back to life.

"The need was recognized, and as a board, it was decided we would pursue this location and push to establish the entity that would once again provide some of the most important care to the Upper Ohio Valley's most treasured asset - and that's our youth."

Jacquelyn Knight, executive director for Orchard Park hospital, explained it hasn't been unusual for a teen who experienced suicidal issues to sit in a local emergency room and wait for hours or even days to receive the services they needed.

Sometimes a four-hour ride to Cleveland for treatment was ordered.

The new hospital will reduce the burden on emergency rooms while the youths wait for a bed at a facility that can be hours away from Wheeling, Knight said. West Virginia presently has just four adolescent psychiatric care facilities located in Charleston, Morgantown, Huntington and Clarksburg.

Locally, Fox Run Hospital in St. Clairsville no longer operates a psychiatric hospital for youths, but instead focuses on longer-term care, Knight explained.

"It is so important that we have this so their family can stay close to home and be connected and be involved in their treatment, too," she said.

Orchard Park, meanwhile, will focus on short-term inpatient care. As an example, if a youth is having suicidal thoughts or substance abuse issues and can't function, Orchard Park will provide services to help them.

The average patient stay will be about eight days, added John Antal, director of hospital services for Orchard Park. There will be group, individual and family therapy available, and doctors will meet them on a daily basis.

Schooling, activities and recreation also will be an important part of the patient care for the youths, Antal said.

"One of the things when we're working with kids with emotional and behavioral issues ... there is also that physical side to adolescence," he explained. "They want to continue to be active and motivated, and we provide that for them here."

There also will be a day room in the hospital where the youths will get to know each other and feel support from one another, he continued.

"When kids come here in a crisis, they need to know that they are not the only ones," Antal said. "When they feel that they are not the only ones going through depression or anxiety, then they feel more comfortable. They don't feel so isolated or alone."

The new hospital building is in need of a commercial kitchen facility to serve patients, and the construction of food preparation and eating areas are among the renovations that must occur at the facility, Knight said.

In addition, as the building has sat vacant for three years, it is in need of general maintenance, she continued. It will also be made entirely mobility accessible, including the gymnasium and outdoor recreation areas.

Upgraded safety doors will be installed, as will technological upgrades and the wiring to accommodate them, she explained.

Former OVMC Chief Operating Officer Michael Caruso and current Wheeling Hospital CEO Douglass Harrison were among those present for the launch, as were Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron, Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger and Fire Chief Jim Blazier.

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