Last fall, more than 77,000 physicians declared the teen mental health crisis a national emergency. To address that need, Children's Minnesota is opening a new mental health treatment center in Roseville.
Children's Minnesota announced the expansion of its mental health services by providing a day program, the Partial Hospitalization Program, in Roseville that will open early 2023.
Jamie Winter is the Director of mental health services at Children's Minnesota. She shared that PHP is a day program that will allow kids to return home on evenings and weekends.
"During the day when they are with us, they will receive multidisciplinary programming, therapy, and family sessions," Winter said. "We also do art and music therapy. We focus on things like nutrition and other wellness topics to really make sure we are setting kids up to be successful at home."
Children's opened its first PHP last year at the hospital's Specialty Center in Lakeville and is an alternative to hospitalization. It can also provide continued care for kids stepping down from the hospital.
Winter shared that one of the program's benefits is that it also helps kids who are struggling in school and need a little extra help when they are not in the classroom.
"We have time during the day that they focus on school work. They have a teacher and tutor who can help them navigate through their course work so that they don't fall behind," Winter said.
Winter also shared the program partners with local school districts to ensure out-of-class instruction matches in-class instruction.
While advocates applaud Children's for expanding its mental health services, they also say more needs to be done.
The new PHP is expected to care for 500 children annually and the Executive Director of NAMI, Sue Abderholden, says the more resources, the better.
Abderholden shared that when it comes to mental health, "there is a whole lot more that we need to do."
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