Many children in crisis have to navigate a broken behavioral health system with long waits, sparse providers, and no easy way to move between medical and mental health care.
“The system is fragmented and chronically underfunded,” said Renee Rafferty, MS, LIMHP, LPC, senior vice president of Behavioral Health & Wellness at Children’s Nebraska. “But as children's hospitals, we're uniquely poised to care for families and their most difficult needs. We're the right people to address this.”
A new Behavioral Health & Wellness Center opening in January 2026 aims to eliminate fragmentation and reduce delays by providing the full spectrum of behavioral health services all in one place next to Children’s Nebraska’s full-service hospital.
It’s more than just a new building; it’s a new model.
A child can go straight to the center rather than the emergency department and be placed with the appropriate provider right away. Once there, they’ll be able to seamlessly transition up and down the continuum — from stabilization to hospitalization to outpatient — based on what they need.
“It's not a bunch of singular programs located in one building. It’s an integrated system of services ensuring kids can move through the continuum of care with the support they need without repeating assessments for each transition,” Rafferty said.
She said this approach will reduce behavioral health care wait times and ED admissions and make families more likely to seek help earlier.
A full continuum of care
What sets the center apart is its comprehensive services:
- Crisis assessment center and urgent care: Immediate evaluation for children in crisis, with the option to stay for up to 23 hours and 59 minutes in a stabilization unit.
- Partial hospitalization services: A hybrid between inpatient care and periodic outpatient care five days a week for around eight hours a day.
- Inpatient and day treatment: Intensive psychiatric treatment for those who require a higher level of care, with transition services back to community settings.
- Outpatient therapy: Individual, group, and family therapy, allowing children to build relationships with therapists before, during, and after any inpatient stay.
- Primary care clinic: A medical clinic inside the center to reduce stigma and reinforce that behavioral health is an integral part of overall health.
- Occupational and recreational therapy: A multi-purpose room designed to support sensory issues and self-soothing techniques.
The integrated approach not only provides the right care at the right time but also eliminates the confusion and hesitancy families often experience when coordinating medical and mental health services across multiple locations.
“From the moment they arrive, they know they’ll be taken care of,” Rafferty said.
Designed for healing
The center was designed to promote well-being around every corner.
“One of our underlying foundations is to have a trauma-informed care environment and link everything we do to how kids are going to experience being in the building,” Rafferty said. “Every aspect of it has been thought of from the lens of ‘how would a kid feel here?’”
Architects crafted a soothing environment featuring:
- Multi-sensory spaces: Calming rooms with interactive panels, quiet nooks for self-regulation, and areas for free play and games with other children in the building.
- Outdoor healing gardens: Natural outdoor spaces for movement, yoga, music, and horticultural activities.
- Family zones: Comfortable lounges where parents can decompress, learn coping skills, and participate in family therapy without feeling like bystanders.
“Kids aren’t little adults,” Rafferty said. “They process things differently, and they need opportunities to play, to explore, and to feel joy even when they’re in crisis. This center’s environment sends a clear message: you’re safe here, and you belong.”
The trauma-informed approach guides not just the building design but also the approach to treatment.
“Relationship comes first, diagnosis second,” Rafferty said. “Healing comes from blending that biopsychosocial model with the medical model and providing hope. It's not what we're going to do to you, it's how we're building a plan alongside you.”
The four-story facility will be staffed by an array of disciplines to ensure every child’s care plan blends medical, psychological, and social support: peer support specialists, psychologists, social workers, occupational and recreational therapists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, family therapists, and primary care physicians.
A model for the future
Funding for the project came from private and state partnerships looking to address the growing crisis in a new way.
As communities nationwide struggle to keep up with the rising demand for pediatric behavioral health care, Children’s Nebraska see this integrated model as a roadmap for the future.
“This center isn’t just about adding behavioral health services, it’s about reimagining what pediatric health care can be,” Rafferty said. “When we finally get to a place where we treat the whole child and consider behavioral health as part of the health care continuum, we'll have arrived at a better place.”
