Page 6 - The Fayetteville Press Newspaper March 2025 Edition

Page 6 The Fayetteville Press March 2025 Edition

Cape Fear Valley Health breaks ground on new adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit in Lillington

LILLINGTON, NC – Jan. 31, 2025 – Cape
Fear Valley Health broke ground on a new inpatient
psychiatric unit for adolescents today. The new facil-
ity is located on the campus of Central Harnett Hos-
pital at 215 Brightwater Drive, Lillington. About 70
people attended the ceremony, which included com-
ments from N.C. Senator Jim Burgin and Kelly
Crosbie, the director of the Division of Mental Health,
Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse
Services from the N.C. Department of Health and
Human Services.
The one-story, 8,850-square-foot building will in-
clude 16 inpatient beds and is estimated to be com-
pleted by December. It is designed specifically to pro-
vide help to psychiatric patients ages 12 to 17 and Committed to
their families. The construction will cost $8.4 million,
funded by the Dorothea Dix Hospital Property Fund
and the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund. The
facility will mirror one Cape Fear Valley Health opened
in Fayetteville in 2022.
“Since we opened the Dorothea Dix Adoles-
cent Care Unit in Fayetteville, we’ve seen how a fa- saving you more
cility like this can transform behavioral health for ado-
lescents,” said Cape Fear Valley Health Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer Michael Nagowski. “We’re excited
to bring the same model of care here and I promise it Learn more at foodlion.com/save
will probably be full the day it opens.”
Corporate Director of Psychiatric Services John
Bigger said that adding this new facility in Lillington
will serve families in the surrounding region, which
includes Ft. Liberty, Fayetteville and Raleigh.
“Providing this unit at Central Harnett Hospital
allows families much closer access to care and af-
fords them the opportunity to be more connected with
their children,” Bigger said. “The unit also affords
families from other nearby communities the opportu-
nity to receive care in a central location with easy
access to nearby highways and resources.”
Children in crisis and their families typically must
wait in the emergency room until a bed is available at
an adolescent psychiatric treatment facility in North
Carolina. During an adolescent’s short-term stay,
which is usually three to five days, they will partici-
pate in individual, group, and/or family counseling with
a focus on evidence-based adaptive skill building as a
foundation for successful reintegration into the com-
munity.
A critical component will be providing services
as needed to identify underlying issues and making
evidence-based recommendations that will impact
future treatment. A secondary goal of the unit is to
assist the youth and/or their families with accessing
support services that will continue to help the adoles-
cent in improving overall functioning within their home
or community setting.
“This is going to help keep kids out of our Emer-
gency Department and get them the help they need,”
Bigger said.

The new state-of-the-art facility will be equipped
with psychotherapy staff, psychiatrists, recreational
therapists, and others to support the critical compo-
nents of evidence-based treatment for adolescents.

Burgin said that every day, there are always
anywhere from 50 to 170 children in hospitals across
the state who are under an involuntary hold in an
Emergency Room because they are waiting for space
in a behavioral health facility.

“The emergency room is not the best place for
youth in mental health crisis,” Burgin said. “I think
this is going to be a great opportunity for the young
people here, to help them deal with issues and to go
forward.”

Crosbie praised partnerships like this one, be-
tween state and local government leadership and lo-
cal healthcare providers, which lead to successful
projects like this.

“Healthcare is very local; mental healthcare is
very local,” Crosbie said. “We say psychiatry and
psychiatric illness and it sounds scary, but really these
are just children who are hurting, and they’re your
family and your neighbors. And it’s a gift to be able to
give them a wonderful clean, well-lighted, therapeu-
tic clinical space, so I’m really honored to be here
today with you all.”