UNC Health Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, N.C., opened an adolescent behavioral health center Sept. 9 to address the “missing middle” in mental healthcare, according to a behavioral health leader at Pardee Hospital.
The 23-bed center sits inside Pardee Hospital and provides acute inpatient psychiatric care for adolescents and support for their families, according to a UNC Health news release. The World Health Organization defines adolescence as between the ages of 10 and 19.
Bridget Fluech, RN, administrative director of behavioral health and emergency medicine, said the center addresses the “missing middle” gap in western North Carolina’s adolescent behavioral health system.
“Opening this center represents our commitment to intervene earlier, to support families more completely and to invest in the future of our community,” Ms. Fluech said in the release.
UNC Health Pardee, part of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, collaborated with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Vaya Health — a managed care organization for behavioral health — and the UNC School of Medicine to establish the center.
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