Addressing what he calls a severe lack of child psychiatric care in the south suburbs, a psychologist is opening a mental health hospital and outpatient center dedicated to serving kids.
For 20 years, Chris Higgins has been treating children and their families through his psychology practice based in Palos Heights. During that time he witnessed the gradual disappearance of hospital inpatient psychiatric services for kids — what the industry refers to as “beds.”
“There are no child or adolescent beds in our area, so we decided to open our new hospital,” Higgins said.
MiraCare Behavioral Healthcare Center, 6775 Prosperi Drive in Tinley Park, has 30 inpatient beds for children and adolescents who need acute care for relatively short stays of seven to nine days. Parents seek inpatient psychiatric care if they believe their child has become a danger to themselves or others.
The center also offers a partial hospital program, which provides intensive treatment multiple days per week, and kids return home for the night. There is also an outpatient program focused on individual and group therapy.
The center occupies a former warehouse, and MiraCare CEO Matt Barry said the design retained significant open space. The facility also includes an exercise area, yoga floor, a clubhouse and space for movie nights.
“Dr. Higgins’ vision is something that doesn’t look institutional,” Barry said. “There’s a lot of interactive space. Kids will feel like they’re in a welcoming environment.”
In the past decade or so, Higgins said the lack of psychiatric beds for kids meant referring parents to a facility in the west suburbs when their child was experiencing a mental health crisis. This reality created significant time and transportation barriers for families, he said.
What’s more, Higgins said, a medical/surgical hospital setting doesn’t foster a child’s mental health care and recovery.
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“It’s a true specialty to care for children and adolescents. You can’t put them in with an adult population,” Higgins said. “Children don’t have an adult mind. Their minds are significantly developing.”
At MiraCare, children can get treated in a way appropriate to their age, instead of like “miniature adults,” Higgins said. One major difference in treating a child’s mental health issues involves the important role played by parents and the rest of the family.
“Their problems are often related to dependence on family or an inability to relate to family. If you’re not including the family in treatment, it’s not going to be as effective,” Higgins said.
MiraCare includes patients’ families in their continuum of care, Higgins said. They prioritize communication with parents, along with skill development. A parent training program will be part of a patient’s care plan, to be sure the progress a child makes isn’t compromised when they return home.
Anxiety and depression, blanket terms that cover many challenges, are affecting more young people than ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents don’t always understand how to cope, Higgins said.
“The story we hear a lot is, ‘Why is this child having trouble when my other three are doing great?'” he said. “This child needs exceptional parenting. They don’t follow the common path.”
Creating a new hospital or other major medical facility requires a unique permit issued by the State of Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. To gain this permit, applicants must meet the qualifications of the state’s Certificate of Need program.
A significant part of this effort includes proving the need for the proposed facility, and Higgins said they worked hard to prove a children’s psychiatric hospital was needed in the south suburbs.
“To open this up, it’s taken a while. It’s almost impossible to open a new hospital if you don’t already have one,” Higgins said. “We had to prove what we all knew was the incredible demand. We almost had to go physician to physician, hospital to hospital to ask, ‘How many young people do you get? How do you help them? Where do you refer them?'”
Providers ultimately told Higgins they were desperate for his team to succeed in opening the MiraCare center. Once proven, the board gave unanimous approval for the new hospital to open, and Higgins said the state has been supportive.
He said the hospital welcomes affiliations with other hospitals, psychiatrists, psychologists and other health care providers in the area. Everyone “rowing in the same direction” creates a continuum of care for children that ensures they have the most success.
“Our community deserves a coordinated continuum of care for our children and adolescents. Our parents need it,” Higgins said. “If the demand is there that we believe, there’s too much for us to do it alone.”
Carole Sharwarko is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.