Behavioral Health Center For Youth Proposed For South Suburbs

State Senator Micheal Hastings (pictured) recently hosted a press conference alongside Palos Behavioral Health Professionals to share details of the proposed mental health center for children and adolescents in Tinley Park. Photo Credit: Office of State Senator Micheal Hastings
State Senator Micheal Hastings (pictured) recently hosted a press conference alongside Palos Behavioral Health Professionals to share details of the proposed mental health center for children and adolescents in Tinley Park. Photo Credit: Office of State Senator Micheal Hastings

Behavioral Health Center For Youth Proposed For South Suburbs

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

During a recent press conference, State Senator Michael Hastings joined Palos Behavioral Health Professionals, a south suburban behavioral health care practice, in announcing plans to create the MIRA Neuro-Behavioral Health Center for Children and Adolescents which, if approved, will be a 30-bed acute care psychiatric hospital for children and teens in Tinley Park.

Pending formal approval by the state’s Health Facilities and Services Review Board, the youth facility will be located in an existing building located on 6775 Prosperi Dr. following a major renovation. If all things go as planned, the facility will be operating at full capacity by January of 2021, according to information provided by Senator Hastings.

“We are building a facility that some of the main hospitals in our area can refer patients to. This building is an amazing building for our purposes,” said Dr. Christopher Higgins, clinical director of Palos Behavioral Health Professionals.

“Instead of us building a $20 million building, we are going to be able to do this at a fraction of the cost because we are rehabbing this building instead of building a new one.”

Repurposing the building at 6775 Prosperi Dr. in Tinley Park, will allow Palos Behavioral Health Professionals to move the adult day programs that they currently housed there into smaller community centers where clients will be able to receive more individualized attention, according to Higgins.

“Too many children are dealing with painful mental and behavioral health challenges that ruin their quality of life. Too many family’s lives are torn apart and devastated because their children are facing overwhelming struggles. Too often, there is nowhere to turn,” Hastings said. “We are providing new hope that tomorrow will be better for children and families throughout the south suburbs and our region.”

The MIRA Neuro-Behavioral Health Center for Children and Adolescents was created to address a lack of access to care for youth facing mental illness crises in the south suburbs. The new facility will make specialized care accessible for young people who experience mental illness.

“The demand for this is incredibly high,” said Higgins. “Children and adolescents are not physically sick, they don’t get MRIs or IVs so for them to go to an institution that is predominately based on doing physical treatment and mixing them into one little unit in a huge hospital it’s not a good place for them.”

As a stand-alone facility, MIRA Neuro-Behavioral Health Center for Children and Adolescents will focus on treating children and adolescents with mental health issues and there will be physicians on staff to prescribe medications if they are needed. There will also be a wealth of educational resources and support for families for the young patients.

“If a child has depression, if a child has anxiety, or if a child all of a sudden can’t go to school, the parents get overwhelmed. We need a center that can help the parents as well as the child and having an acute care facility is a critical part of that,” said Higgins.

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