Mental Health Milestone
10-Year Partnership with Lindner Center of HOPE Creates Ripple Effect in the Community
The growing need for mental health has long been a priority at Cincinnati Children’s, and this month marks the 10-year anniversary of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s partnership with the Lindner Center of HOPE to provide a higher level of care for this population in our community. The Lindner Center, located in Mason, Ohio, is a comprehensive mental health center that provides inpatient and outpatient care for adults, as well as counseling and research on drugs in collaboration with UC Health. Cincinnati Children’s at Lindner Center of HOPE is dedicated to adolescents with a specialized treatment team that cares exclusively for them. It includes a 16-bed inpatient unit and partial hospitalization program, which allows patients to receive care at the facility during the day and spend nights and weekends at home. What makes this type of setting extraordinary is that Cincinnati Children’s is able to partner with Lindner in providing a level of both specialized inpatient mental health and eating disorder treatment to adolescents at this specific location. It also extends our services to another part of our primary service market, keeping kids close to home so families can be engaged in the care. Before this joint effort, families in Butler or Warren counties would have to drive all the way to the College Hill campus for treatment. Until recently, if a family needed help, the only treatment options were our College Hill facility or Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. The care offered at Cincinnati Children’s at Lindner Center of HOPE certainly makes a difference for patients, but it also impacts those on the other side of treatment. Karen Williams is a health unit coordinator who has been with the program since the beginning. Outside of work, she oversees the children’s ministry at Ebenezer Second Baptist Church. Her position at Lindner Center, she says, has influenced her life in many aspects, from her role in church to the way she raises her own children. “What I learn here, I take it with me,” she says. One such example is her orchestration of an anti-bullying class for the kids at church, which stemmed from her professional experience with the effects bullying has on area youth. “The adolescents need a voice, and my position here gives me the opportunity to help people,” Williams says. “Here, it’s about the kids and their family.” Thanks to this joint venture, these families Williams serves now have the option to receive treatment close to home.
By the Numbers
10: years of partnership between Cincinnati Children’s and Lindner Center of HOPE 10,707: admissions (inpatient and partial hospital program) 8,249: patients (inpatient and partial hospital program)
Increased Commitment to Mental Health
Cincinnati Children’s continues to deliver on improving mental health in children. The new $99-million inpatient mental health facility in College Hill is scheduled to open in late 2023. The five-story space will replace the current inpatient building on the College Hill campus. At 160,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art campus will be 68 percent larger than the current facility.