Covenant Children's received grant for Pediatric Relational Health Unit

Alana Edgin, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
·2 min read
Relational Health Center
Relational Health Center

Covenant Children's has received a $500,000 grant to support the upcoming Pediatric Relational Health Unit, Covenant Health announced this week.

The grant came from The Well Being Trust foundation, which "is dedicated to advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health for all," according to a news release from Covenant Health.

The years-long effort between Covenant Health and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is set to open in August. The unit will provide pediatric patients in West Texas and eastern New Mexico with mental health services.

TTUHSC's Department of Psychiatry’s children’s services will be relocated to the unit. They will make assessments, and provide an outpatient therapy program. That program will have individual, group, medication management, and parent-child interaction therapy.

The new services will include:

  • An Intensive Outpatient Program, which will give a more intensive, structured, outpatient services for children who are not responding to traditional outpatient services alone or are being stepped down from a partial hospitalization program.

  • A Partial Hospitalization Program, which is a day treatment program for children either at risk for inpatient hospitalization, are being discharged and stepped down from psychiatric inpatient care, or need more intensive services than are provided in the traditional outpatient setting.

"We’ve seen increases in pediatric behavioral health issues and having to hold these kids in our ED, or in our inpatient units, while we wait for an inpatient placement, said Dr. Amy Thompson, Covenant Children's CEO. "This new unit aims to keep kids as close to home as possible by allowing many to stay and receive treatment in the IOP or PHP programs, rather than having to be hospitalized at an inpatient program - the closest of which is hours away. These new services really elevate the level of care, in a meaningful way, for our community and we can’t wait for the community to be able to benefit from it."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Covenant Children's received grant for Pediatric Relational Health Unit