New Hilltop mental health hospital unveiled amid workforce shortage and high care demand

State officials unveiled a new mental health hospital serving central Ohio on Wednesday, starting the next chapter of an eight-year project that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called "a new era" for Ohio's mental health care system.

The ribbon-cutting of the Central Ohio Behavioral Healthcare Hospital on Columbus' West Side comes amid both a growing need for mental health care and a harrowing mental health workforce shortage at state and national levels.

"This project illustrates how, when you dream big, great things can happen, even in state government," said Bob Short, acting deputy director for hospital services at Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services, earning him a few chuckles from the audience.

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Funding for the project came from the 2018 capital budget under former Gov. John Kasich's administration, in part thanks to current Democratic state Rep. Adam C. Miller, who fought hard for the money in the legislature and whose district includes the Hilltop neighborhood where the hospital resides.

"We are a community of resilience and we welcome everyone," Miller said. "So it was appropriate to keep it here, and say that the West Side is where you will find recovery, support and a pathway to success."

Central Ohio Behavioral Healthcare Hospital offers improved safety, privacy in a bigger building

The new hospital on West Broad Street will replace the Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare Kosar building next door as the region's state mental health hospital. That building will be torn down and replaced with green space. Its successor will contain 208 beds, 30 more than the Twin Valley building, and stands at 270,000 square feet, nearly 100,000 more square feet than its predecessor.

The building includes eight patient units, each with its own intensive care suite for specialized care, as well as outdoor spaces, including secured courtyards containing walking paths and a basketball court.

Indoor spaces include a gymnasium, art rooms, a meditation room, a social learning center and a chapel. There's also an on-site courtroom for patients receiving court-mandated treatment. Landscape portraits line the walls in various hallways, and large, secure windows let in natural light in every patient room.

Improving privacy and safety for patients in the new facility was a top priority, said Frank Beel, a trained psychiatric nurse and chief executive officer of Central Ohio Behavioral Healthcare. In the new building, 85% of patient rooms will be single occupancy. At the previous building, all of the patient rooms had multiple beds.

Staff and patients will begin moving into the facility in June. It's expected to serve 990 patients per year from central Ohio counties.

Hope that a new mental health hospital will attract a new workforce

The National Association of Mental Illness Ohio estimated that there is one psychiatrist for every 10,000 adult Ohioans as of 2022, and a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the need for mental health professionals in Ohio has only been 30% met − a few percentage points higher than the national average.

The same Kaiser study outlined the increase in reports of mental health issues both nationally and statewide, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, so those shortages are being acutely felt.

The new behavioral health hospital will have more than 500 employees, including psychiatric physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, therapeutic program workers, among other positions. Yet Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Director LeeAnne Cornyn said there are still staff vacancies.

"The governor often says, 'If you build it, they will come'," Cornyn told reporters Wednesday. "This is a state of the art facility, not just in Ohio, but nationally. We feel very confident that this beautiful setting will help us attract more staff to provide the high quality care that our patients need."

shendrickson@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New Hilltop mental health hospital unveiled amid high care demand