YOUNGSTOWN - YOUNGSTOWN - For the first time since Woodside hospital closed nearly three decades ago, a behavioral health hospital is open in the valley.

It's a partnership between Mercy Health and Lifepoint behavioral health.

The facility offers individual and group counseling, medication management assistance and trauma informed care.

The hospital also offers specialty programs to support first responders, active-duty military members and veterans.

“A hospital like this one is an absolute gamechanger,” said Joseph Caruso, chief executive officer of Mercy Health Behavioral Health Hospital. “We'll be doing discharge planning and assistance for the folks that are here. We'll be using evidence based practices of DBT as well as motivational interviewing and as well as working on trauma informed care.”

Those with Mercy Health, Lifepoint Health and the community celebrated the grand opening of the valley's only designated behavioral Health hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Those who attended the ribbon cutting were also able to take a tour of the facility.

“A gap looks like the services that were needed in behavioral health. The building we are seeing today is an example of that gap being closed,” said John Luellen, Mercy Health Ohio State President.

The behavioral health hospital will be equipped for patients dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar, psychosis, personality disorders and mental health concerns accompanied by substance abuse. 

It is nearly 62,000 square feet and has 72 beds. 

“It also has the ability to expand to 96 if it's needed down the road, but it is. There's just big gaps in the community for people that have behavioral health disorders,” said Caruso.

Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital currently treats patients in the emergency room. The hope is that having a designated mental health facility will allow the hospital to serve more patients while taking stress off of the emergency room.

“Our emergency rooms are very much overrun. And so we are able to help people get the services that they need,” said Caruso. “We're transitioning the unit down at St Elizabeth’s, so as they phase down, we're going to be phasing up, because in our partnership, we are actually bringing on board all of the Mercy staff that are down at St Elizabeth’s.”

The decades without a designated mental health facility led to a gap in healthcare services in the valley.

“When you stop and think about how behavioral health patients have been cared for, classically, they're usually cared for in a medical hospital where we carve out space for them to receive the behavioral health care. This is a purpose built facility on par with any medical facility that we would build,” said Luellen. 

In some cases, the gap led to people looking elsewhere for care.

“So many patients end up leaving the Valley for that care because of the capacity of the local behavioral health units. So when we looked at where gaps existed, there was a significant gap in terms of the care being rendered in the Valley for those behavioral health patients,” said Luellen.

Mercy Health will start accepting patients into the facility in early January. Outpatient services will be added in May.

Groundbreaking on the hospital took place in April of 2024. 

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