JEFFERSON CITY — A new psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents is being planned for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region as part of a funding agreement approved by Gov. Mike Parson in July.
The state is spending $7.5 million to jump-start a fundraising effort by KVC Missouri, a not-for-profit mental health provider that took over the Webster Groves-based operation of Great Circle in April.
The aim is to add 48 acute hospital beds and 16 specialized residential treatment beds in a region that has less than 50% of the private psychiatric beds needed to support children, causing delays in admissions, waiting lists and long travel times for families, KVC said in a statement.
“DMH welcomes additional capacity to support kids in Missouri,†said Debra Walker, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Initial details of the project were released about six months after Great Circle agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine to the federal government for overbilling.
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Kansas-based KVC Health Systems has 2,400 mental health professionals nationwide across 60 locations in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
According to KVC, the new facility is expected to serve more than 2,500 children ages six to 18 per year.
Services at the hospital will include mental health assessments, intensive psychiatric care, medication management and individual, family and group therapy sessions.
The hospital also will teach young people about their brains and how to regulate their emotions, the organization said in a statement.
The estimated project cost is $15 million. KVC is seeking matching funds from public and private philanthropic organizations to finance the remaining half of the cost.
Michelle Lawrence, vice president for development at KVC, said a specific site for the 30,000-square-foot facility has not been determined.
“We’re assessing a variety of options,†Lawrence said. “It could be that we renovate the space we have. That’s certainly an option.â€
Walker said neither Parson nor the Department of Mental Health requested the funding, which was inserted into the state’s $51 billion spending plan by lawmakers in May.
The department also received $300 million to build a new psychiatric hospital in Kansas City and $171 million to boost pay for direct care providers in residential programs for people with developmental disabilities.
Walker also said the agency was not involved in the investigations that led to the fine being levied against Great Circle.
The penalty was assessed as part of a probe that included a raid on the facility by the FBI and the arrest of three employees on suspicion of child abuse or failing to report it.
As part of the agreement, Great Circle admitted falsely claiming to have provided enhanced services for six residents between 2019 and 2020.
The feds and state officials, however, agreed to not prosecute Great Circle because of the nonprofit’s cooperation and the civil settlement agreement.
Plus, officials said, a criminal conviction could jeopardize services provided to youths.
Great Circle, one of the largest behavioral health organizations for troubled youths in the state at the time, started in 1832 as a home for orphans from the cholera epidemic.
Along with agreeing to cooperate in future health care fraud probes, Great Circle under KVC Missouri also agreed to bolster its in-house ethics program.