Upstate’s new, trailblazing Children’s Pavilion opens

SYRACUSE — Upstate Medical University describes its new Children’s Pavilion as the “first facility of its kind in New York state, and one of only a handful in the nation.” The facility at 655 Madison St. in Syracuse is a new biobehavioral health unit (BBHU) for children with mental-health needs and developmental disabilities. It’s located about a block away from Upstate Medical’s Institute for Human Performance at 505 Irving Ave. “The biobehavioral unit is indeed the first and only inpatient program in the state to treat children with neurodevelopmental disorders and behavioral dyscontrol,” Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University, said in his remarks. “The Pavilion also increases child and adolescent m ental-health beds at Upstate from eight to 26.” Dewan went on to say that the Pavilion is another step in Upstate’s commitment to respond to the “urgent and, sadly, chronic need” for child mental-health treatment services. Officials say the opening of this unit by Upstate will reduce out-of-state placements for children, thereby reducing the financial burden on families and the trauma to youth by keeping families together. “Every year, 300 to 400 children who need treatment here are sent out of state because they cannot be managed at home or in a group home. Our children deserve better,” Dewan said. The effort to create this unit started back in 2015, he noted. “This is a unit designed for children who have intellectual disabilities and comorbid mental-health conditions,” Henry Roane, director of the Golisano Center for Special Needs at Upstate Medical University, said. “And they’re children who primarily are admitted to a unit like that because they have intense behavior problems, so they’re physically aggressive toward others.” “Addressing the mental-health crisis affecting our nation’s youth will not be accomplished just by opening this new unit,” Dr. Christopher Lucas, vice chair of psychiatry services at Upstate Medical University, said in his remarks at the event. “But it is the first step and a wonderful step it is in developing a comprehensive spectrum of intensive services for our region’s youth.” “We’re dealing so often now with individuals that are coming to us for services, not with one particular diagnosis but with multiple conditions … medical, psychiatric, behavioral, developmental in nature, so again, it’s a very complex population that we’re supporting and the need for this type of specialized care is essential to help move forward and to address those treatment needs,” Jill Pettinger, deputy commissioner of statewide services for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), said. Pettinger went on to say that she and her colleagues at OPWDD have been focused on expanding the availability of children’s crisis services in New York State because she says they know that people “seldom fit neatly” into one service system, adding that this project is a “reflection … of that recognition and it’s important.” Formerly a building on the Hutchings campus, the newly renovated 31,000-square-foot building will feature the BBHU, an 11-bed specialized unit where children 5 to 17 years old can receive behavioral and mental health care and one-to-one therapy. The goal of the unit is to stabilize and reduce severe destructive behavior in patients by teaching alternative forms of behavior while also providing evidence-based caregiver training. Additionally, the building will feature 18 additional beds to expand Upstate’s inpatient pediatric/adolescent psychiatry unit. The opening of these two units represents a significant expansion of Upstate’s mental-health services for children, especially those with multiple mental and behavioral-health diagnoses. “We will all be looked at by the whole country,” Moira Tashjian, executive deputy commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, said in speaking to the gathering. “What are we doing, how are we doing it, and how can it [be] replicated? I’m excited for this journey.”