Our New Mental Health Hospital

The design of a mental health hospital is fundamentally different from the design of a traditional hospital. Ensuring the safety of our patients, staff, and visitors guides design options in psychiatric facilities for everything from layouts, bathrooms, and furniture, hinges, and knobs. Too often the result is a sterile, unwelcoming environment. Not at Children's Pavilion.

Children's Pavilion incorporates the necessary security features and aligns with the highest standards of patient safety without losing the whimsical touches that help children understand they are in an environment created just for them. Family involvement is crucial to successful mental health care, so Children's Pavilion was designed to make family participation in treatment as easy and as comfortable as possible. Nearby lounges (pictured) offer space for parents to rest and recharge or catch up with work or friends.

Problem behaviors often arise when children lack the skills, knowledge, or words to process emotions. Art, music, movement, meditation, and other activities and therapies that integrate body, mind, and spirit can become powerful forms of release and communication. These methods will be part of a toolbox we will develop with each child. Our goal is to help children manage distress, become mindful, regulate their emotions, and improve their social skills.

In addition to our team of pediatric psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health counselors, CHKD's new hospital employs child life and recreational therapists to provide opportunities for creative expression in our specially designed art and music rooms (music room pictured).

Children need to play. To the best of their ability, they need to move and spend time with other children. Children's Pavilion provides ample opportunities for all of the typical activities of childhood. 

The facility's two-story indoor recreation center includes a half-court basketball area and space to accommodate many types of indoor activities. An exercise room, accessible from the gym, includes treadmills, bikes, and elliptical machines so children can get regular exercise - which has been proven to reduce stress, elevate mood, and contribute to a child's overall sense of well-being. 

The rooftop outdoor recreation area is designed to let children play safely outside. In addition to an outdoor basketball court and game zone, the rooftop area  includes handicap-accessible interactive planters where kids can work with plants and have fun just being kids. 

CHKD's mental health initiative is a direct expression of our long-standing commitment to our community and our ongoing efforts to lead the region in meeting the changing health needs of our children.

Our plan to address mental health includes community and professional education. CHKD will establish the region's first child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. Developing this and other educational programs with colleges and universities will give CHKD a recruitment pipeline for professionals trained to deliver care that reflects CHKD's patient-first culture.

CHKD will also conduct research that will be relevant to our patients and to the national discourse on children's mental health. As the hospital assembles its team of top professionals, CHKD will be on the cutting edge of program development and treatments that serve children and their families most effectively.