Ambitious Goals for New Mental and Behavioral Health Institute
Post Date: October 9, 2023 | Publish Date:
A $15 million gift from The James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Foundation will help Cincinnati Children’s–a national leader in pediatric mental healthcare and research–accelerate and scale up its work to address a growing crisis facing America’s youth.
The new Mental and Behavioral Health Institute will provide a streamlined organizational structure to coordinate all current and new initiatives, projects and collaborations addressing mental and behavioral health at Cincinnati Children’s. The institute will include:
- A deeper integration of three divisions at Cincinnati Children’s: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Plus, enhanced collaboration with all clinical divisions and many research divisions at Cincinnati Children’s. Examples of collaboration across divisions include the recently launched Heart and Mind Wellbeing Center and the Integrated Behavioral Health program that embeds mental health professionals at our pediatric primary care clinics.
- Combined, the three mental and behavioral care-focused divisions include more than 1,000 care professionals. These teams work in locations including schools, neighborhood primary care clinics, emergency departments, and a state-of-the-art care center opening in October at Cincinnati Children’s College Hill campus.
- In addition to providing more inpatient care than any other pediatric health system in the country, Cincinnati Children’s scientists conduct extensive research to improve treatment outcomes. Their teams are developing advanced early warning tools to help clinicians detect when children are on a path to developing anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts. And experts in health quality improvement are re-inventing outpatient care to proactively address mental and behavioral health concerns to reduce or eliminate an inpatient hospital stay.
Cincinnati Children’s has launched a national search for a distinguished leader in pediatric mental, behavioral and developmental health to serve as the institute’s director and drive innovations that accelerate excellence in clinical care, research, education and advocacy.
