Katy Welkie, vice president of Intermountain and CEO of Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, speaks about the plans for the new first-of-its-kind $96 million pediatric behavioral health center and campus for Utah children at a press conference in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 17, 2024. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — Intermountain Children’s Health is expanding its behavioral health services with a new center in Taylorsville.
The new family-centered facility hopes to help the growing need for behavioral services for kids. The CEO of Primary Children’s Hospital Katy Welkie explained these services often have long wait times.
“The exciting part of this new building is we get to expand all of those programs and shorten that length of time. And we’re building a crisis center,” Welkie said.
People can now go directly to the walk-in crisis center instead of visiting the emergency department, which can leave families waiting days for help.
Rendering of new behavioral health center.(Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
The $96 million dollar campus is already under construction in Taylorville.
According to a press release, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center will be a 90,000-square-foot facility that will expand programming to include a nearly 50% increase in inpatient beds.
This is also the state’s first dedicated behavioral health inpatient unit to provide mental health crisis care tailored for youth with autism and neuro-diverse needs. Families will be able to stay overnight and be actively engaged in the health care plan.
“I’m excited to share that we’ll be ready to open this new facility next year in late 2025,” said Welkie at a press conference on Monday morning.