PEORIA MAGAZINE January 2023

S P O T L I G H T

ADULT MENTAL HEALTH CARE, CLOSER

TO HOME OSF unveils plans to build the state’s largest psychiatric hospital outside Chicago area

Dr. Sam Sears, OSF's director of behavioral health physician services

BY AMY TALCOTT PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

I t’s no secret that there is a mental health crisis in the United States. According to a 2022 study by Mental Health America, nearly 50 million adults, or 19.6%of the population, suffered from a mental illness in 2019. The number grew to 21.6% in 2021, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Illinois alone in 2021, more than 400,000 adults experienced serious mental illness ranging from acute and/or chronic depression to anxiety, schizophrenia and mood or personal disorders, according to the National Alliance of Mental Health (NAMI). More than half received no treatment due to a lack of services, of awareness, of affordability, or because of the stigma that remains attached tomental illness. OSF HealthCare hopes to improve all of those dynamics with plans to build Illinois’ largest psychiatric hospital outside the Chicago metro area.

TEAMING UP, FILLING A VOID

inpatient beds are available locally. In talking with themabout an opportunity to bring an adult behavioral health facility to the Tri-County area, we felt confident in their ability to meet our community’s needs and help us scale this initiative effectively.” OSF Vice President of Business Development Emily Shields helped vet US HealthVest as a potential teammate. “Special ized behavioral health programs are specific to individuals with complex medical and mental health needs, and we currently just don’t have those capabilities,” she said. “Partneringwith a company that already has a successful behavioral health care model allows us to bring these services to central Illinois.” OSF currently has adult inpatient behavioral health units at its hospitals in Ottawa and Champaign-Urbana, each under 15 beds. The new facility will house 100 beds on multiple floors.

On the drawing board is a 100-bed adult behavioral health hospital in north Peoria that will offer a full continuum of mental health services, including a 24/7 crisis center. In partnership with US HealthVest, OSF hopes to build the facility on a tract of land it already owns on Route 91. If approved by state regulators, the newhospital could open in late 2024 or early 2025. Dr. Sam Sears, OSF's director of behavioral health physician services, is heavily involved in the planning of the facility and explained how the partnership came to be. “It was actually amix of great need and some darn good fortune,” he said. “US HealthVest is a developer of psychiatric hospitals with locations around the country, including three facilities in the Chicago area. We often send our patients to their facilities when no

32 JANUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE