Today, all of us at PrairieCare are pleased to announce the official opening of Children’s Minnesota’s first inpatient mental health unit at the system’s St. Paul hospital. PrairieCare is now partnering with Children’s Minnesota to deliver high-quality psychiatric care to kids as young as six years old – providing programmatic guidance and joint clinical leadership for the new unit.
Our two organizations have long been dedicated to the health and well-being of children in our state and are now coming together to leverage our combined strengths to deliver the best in medically complex mental health care, helping to meet the urgent mental health needs of the most vulnerable kids in Minnesota and the region.
The new Children’s Minnesota 22-bed inpatient mental health unit will care for approximately 1,000 children and adolescents each year and will allow parents to stay overnight with their child. This is also the first inpatient unit in the east metro to treat kids under 12 years old.
In this partnership, our teams have been focused on one common goal: to create a multi-disciplinary care team of the best and the brightest psychiatrists, program therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, child life and music therapists to provide individualized treatment tailored to meet each child’s needs. We look forward to finally bringing this combined expertise to the community.
Dr. Ryan Williams, PrairieCare’s physician executive, has been appointed as the medical director of inpatient psychiatry at Children’s Minnesota.
“This partnership is a testament to the dedication of both PrairieCare and Children’s Minnesota to address the unmet mental health needs of our children,” said Dr. Williams. “Kids and young adults need access to mental health resources designed for their specific, age-appropriate and medical needs, and we look forward to providing this personalized care to our community.”
The PrairieCare team is proud to partner with Children’s Minnesota, one of the largest pediatric health systems in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood.
We are thrilled to officially open the unit and look forward to providing this personalized and integrated care to patients at Children’s Minnesota. Today marks an important step forward for pediatric mental health care in our region, and one we’re honored to celebrate alongside our partners and the families we serve.
Learn more about Children’s Minnesota mental health unit and their community partners.