Amid 'mental health tsunami,' new Butner hospital opens to treat youth

Children living with mental health challenges will have a new care option soon.

A standalone hospital with 54 beds is opening at 100 West H Street in Butner. The repurposed site used to serve as the R.J. Blackley Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center, which closed on March 1.

The new site is for people who are 12 to 18 years old and the services will solely focus on addressing behavioral health.

"The children are being swept away from a mental health tsunami," said Barbara-Ann Bybel, the UNC Health Director of Psychiatry.

Bybel says this site will offer acute care services and is a short-term option. Patients will usually stay about a week.

The health officials say the need is great, though. They're anticipating working with up to 800 kids each year.

Currently, emergency departments around the state are filling up with teens and kids, sometimes waiting weeks for a bed in a behavioral health unit, Bybel said. That's as the state’s rate of young people ending their lives has doubled in the last decade, UNC Health reports.

Bybel says the kids need help and so often she hears about parents who feel hopeless as they search for a place that offers care specifically for children.

"They’re at their wit's end," she said. "Their child is in need and they don’t know what to do. To feel that helpless when you’re a parent and the child you love is suffering, it’s really sad and we want to help those families."

The plan is to take a holistic approach, offering a variety of services from yoga to music therapy, teaching kids coping strategies.

Health officials told WRAL News they're hopeful they'll be serving their first patients by the end of the month.

Children's mental health

Mental health issues have been rising in North Carolina and the United States for more than a decade, including among the nation’s youngest people. Click or tap here to view a list state and federal resources.