photo by: Photo by Eric Ayres

John Antal, director of hospital services for Orchard Park Hospital, speaks before members of the Wheeling Rotary Club. Antal gave an update on the progress being made to open the new mental heath care facility for youth in the former Robert C. Byrd Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center in Wheeling.

WHEELING – Orchard Park Hospital has been in “start-up mode” over the past several months in preparation for a highly anticipated grand opening in Wheeling this summer.

The facility will serve the region as an acute care center for children and adolescents in need of short-term psychiatric and behavioral health treatment. It is a service that is vitally needed not only in the Ohio Valley but also across the state of West Virginia, where there is a significant shortage of available residential care facilities for this vulnerable age group and for this crucial type of intervention, officials said.

“There is a shortage of psychiatric beds in the state of West Virginia,” said John Antal, director of hospital services for Orchard Park.

Antal was the featured guest during a recent meeting of the Wheeling Rotary Club, where he provided an update on the progress being made at the facility that will be located on Eoff Street in Wheeling at the former site of the Robert C. Byrd Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center.

The Robert C. Byrd Center’s closing in conjunction with the Ohio Valley Medical Center’s closure in September of 2019 was a major loss to the region, officials said, noting that they hope to fill that void this summer with the opening of Orchard Park Hospital.

“The Robert C. Byrd Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center was up and running for seven years, and it was a wonderful program,” Antal said, adding that Orchard Park will bring back acute psychiatric care for the youth of the area. “It’s going to be very similar to what had been the Robert C. Byrd Center. We will be serving kids and adolescents ages 5 to 17, and possibly 18 if they’re still in high school and still living at home with parents.”

Antal said that currently, time on waiting lists for child and adolescent outpatient behavioral health care at services across the state can be for periods of around three months. For acute care when intervention is needed immediately, children from the Wheeling area often have to be sent to facilities in Huntington, Charleston, Morgantown or even out of state, he said.

“What we want to do with the opening of Orchard Park Hospital is to provide the extra beds in the state of West Virginia that they need access to, and to do it in this area, which is very important,” Antal said. “We will serve the tristate area, including the entire state of West Virginia as well as parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio.”

The Children’s Home of Wheeling purchased the former Robert C. Byrd Center in February of 2022.

“We’ve basically been in start-up mode ever since then,” said former OVMC Chief Operating Officer Michael Caruso, who has been assisting officials with the Children’s Home of Wheeling and Orchard Park Hospital with the task of getting this new center opened. “It is an absolutely beautiful, state-of-the-art facility.”

The former Robert C. Byrd Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center will soon be the home of Orchard Park Hospital, a new acute psychiatric care facility for children and adolescents. (Photo by Derek Redd)

Caruso said the team has been working on renovations inside the facility, including the installation of a new kitchen. They have been going through the accreditation process and are focusing on putting together what will be the vital component of the operation – the staff.

Orchard Park is expected to employ about 40 professionals in addition to interns who will also work at the facility to get first-hand career experience.

“We plan on opening at the beginning of July of this year,” Antal said. “It’s something that’s highly needed, we want to have a highly trained staff, and we want to approach this in a very professional manner.

“And we’re going to invite the community to help out as much as possible.”

The Rotary Club of Wheeling is stepping up to help, designating Orchard Park Hospital as the beneficiary of its popular annual Taste of the Market, which will take place on May 18 this year at Centre Market.

According to Antal, the closure of the Robert C. Byrd Center was not the only factor that created a major challenge for mental health care for area youth in recent years. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has also taken a toll on the emotional wellbeing of many people, especially young people who are still growing in a time when social media, political divisions, relentless news coverage of things like school shootings and other stress-inducing situations basically envelop today’s youth on a daily basis.

From 2019 to 2022, statistics from WVU Medicine show that emergency room cases of children suffering from mental health issues skyrocketed from around 2,000 visits to more than 3,000 visits annually in the state of West Virginia alone.

“That number jumped by 1,000 since the pandemic,” Antal said. “That’s a significant increase in young people seeking help for mental health issues. What these kids are experiencing in their lives now is so different than anything we experienced growing up. In the wake of the pandemic, kids have had a difficult time interacting. Kids are struggling socially and struggling with how to deal with other kids, with authority figures and with social media.”

There are different types and different levels of psychiatric and behavioral health care, ranging from outpatient and intensive outpatient facilities, emergency shelters and group homes, and long-term psychiatric residential facilities such as the Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents. Orchard Park will be an inpatient, short-term, acute crisis unit dealing with specific issues.

“Our average length of stay will be about eight days,” Antal said. “It could be four to five days, or it could be for a couple of weeks.

“What we want to do is teach those kids and adolescents how to behave better, how to think through their emotions and how to understand things.”

Some children are suicidal, homicidal or are experiencing psychosis – hearing commands to do things or having other hallucinations. Other children have extreme behavioral issues such as cutting themselves or becoming very aggressive very quickly. Some have a lot of anxiety and depression, and many have a tough time maintaining relationships with others.

Antal said these children need to learn to be able to identify and talk about their thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

“What we want to do is foster that type of learning and that type of help,” Antal said.

Once opened, Orchard Park Hospital will have three units – one 13-bed unit for children ages 5-12, another 13-bed unit for adolescents ages 13-17 (or 18, in some cases), and one special care unit with four beds for kids with autistic issues or severe social issues, for a total of 30 beds. The facility will also have a gymnasium with a rubberized floor and an outdoor area.

“There will be psychotherapy groups and activity therapy where they’ll learn to cope, learn to win and lose, and learn how to cooperate,” Antal said. “They’ll also be able to see other kids going through what they’re going through, which is important – to know they’re not alone in what they’re dealing with.”

Antal, who previously worked with the Children’s Home of Wheeling early in his career, noted that the organization has been a pillar in the community for many decades.

“The Children’s Home of Wheeling was the first orphanage in the state of West Virginia,” he said. “In fact it was chartered on March 5 of 1870 – so it goes way, way back.”

Greg Marquart, president of The Children’s Home of Wheeling Foundation Inc., emphasized that a lot of hard work has gone into getting Orchard Park ready to be up and running, and community support is always welcome.

“It’s been an ongoing, lengthy process, and it’s been very expensive,” Marquart said. “We appreciate any help that may be available.”

The Children’s Home is making what was estimated to be a $10 million investment to get Orchard Park Hospital operational by this summer.

“Beds are full across the state,” Caruso said. “We don’t feel that we’re going to have an occupancy issue. There’s a tremendous need for our children.”

Antal added that a suicide and crisis hotline is always available to those who need it, and it is easy to reach now with a simple, three-digit emergency phone number: 988.

“For a child, adolescent or a family member in need – this is a lifeline,” Antal said, noting that help is there for anyone who is suicidal, who cares for someone who may be suicidal or who is dealing with any other difficult mental health issue.