A new children’s psychiatric hospital, under construction in Hays, will soon mean that parents in western Kansas have closer treatment options. Currently, parents have to drive their children hours away, to big cities. When the Hays hospital opens next January, it’ll be the State’s only facility West of Wichita that offers acute care for kids experiencing severe mental health episodes. Governor Laura Kelly, who worked as a therapist in a children’s psychiatric hospital years ago, toured the site during a recent trip to Hays. She says offering specialty care close to home will help keep more people in Western Kansas.
Kelly says the facility is incredibly important, not only to the kids who will receive services there, but to the whole region, economically. Hospital officials say the new facility will allow the Kansas Mental Health System to serve roughly 600 more children each year, than it does now.
