Construction of what will be a nearly $12 million pediatric center for behavioral and mental health services at Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia, located in Augusta’s Medical District and serving the greater Central Savannah River Area, got underway April 21.
Almost half of that total cost is couched in a $5.3 million endowment from the Kisner Foundation that has allowed programmatic services to already be up and running throughout the campus.
Once the estimated $6 million in renovations are complete, expected for January or February of next year, those services will be co-located on the second-floor of Wellstar Children’s there on Harper Street.
Dr. Valera Hudson said an Intensive Outpatient program like the one Wellstar will offer for the first time early next year, acts as "a bridge to prevent hospitalization."
Dr. Valera Hudson, pediatrician-in-chief for Wellstar Children’s, said that co-locating will provide a better, more convenient experience for patients and families while also giving the hospital the opportunity of offering something it hasn’t been able to: Intensive Outpatient services.
“An Intensive Outpatient Program really is a bridge to prevent hospitalization for children who have more extreme needs, and it provides the opportunity to work with not only the child, but the child and their family,” Hudson said.
With this kind of outpatient treatment, a child can still attend school but then also receive coordinated care in the after-school hours.
Intensive Outpatient programming for child psychology, “there's nothing like that for children in our area,” Brittany Kisner said. Currently, “children who are really struggling with mental health might have to go somewhere outside the CSRA.”
Kisner chairs the Kisner Foundation, founded by her husband, Aiken professional golfer Kevin Kisner. She also formerly worked at Children's Hospital as a speech pathologist.
The Kisners were at Wellstar Children’s on Monday morning for the ceremonial first hammer swings, punching a couple holes in the drywall there on the second-floor, the demolition preamble to construction.
Aiken professional golfer Kevin Kisner and his wife, Brittany Kisner, are the two behind the Kisner Foundation, which provided a $5.3 million endowment to Wellstar MCG Health for establishing a new behavioral and mental health center at Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.
“This is a great way to see it all come to fruition, Brittany and I being able to swing the hammers and tear the walls down and see what our future waiting room’s going to look like,” Kevin said.
The Kisner Foundation has been in it from the start, the vision for the new center having begun around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, before even Augusta University and Wellstar health systems merged into what is now Wellstar MCG Health.
“There's a huge need, obviously, a growing need, in this country for children’s behavioral and mental health services, and there’s a real lack in these services in our area,” Brittany said.
A new pediatric behavioral and mental health center will open at Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia in Augusta as early as January or February of next year.
This was what got the two to direct their foundation’s philanthropic dollars to this center that will bear their name: early discussions had told them the hospital’s biggest future need would be in children’s and adolescents’ mental and behavioral health.
The Kisner Foundation and Friends Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness at Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia has other donors, too, including Norfolk Southern, Atlanta Gas Light and Walmart Community Foundation.
“Even before the pandemic, we knew that children in our country were challenged by behavioral and mental health issues. And certainly, the pandemic and all the challenges that came with that only exacerbated that,” Dr. Hudson said.
Dr. Valera Hudson gets in on the demo work for the new pediatric behavioral and mental health center at Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.
“Locally and throughout the state of Georgia, we unfortunately have many children who have challenges with anxiety and depression and behavioral issues, and our health system is just overwhelmed,” she said.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in seven kids ages 3-17 had a diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition, to include ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, anxiety and depression, and intellectual disability.
The CDC goes on to note that “children can also experience some symptoms without meeting criteria for a condition, or they can meet criteria for diagnosis but remain undiagnosed.”
Dr. Hudson said it’s tough to meet the need and that there will have to be ongoing efforts in finding new ways to support primary pediatricians — a first line of defense — and to expand comprehensive treatment options.
"We know that for some children, they need a higher level of care, and that’s what we’re hoping to increase here with this new center,” she said.
The new center will open right alongside the adjacent services of child neurology and pediatric rehab.
“I’m looking forward to the synergies and innovation that will come from that [...] All of those services impact children, and many children need more than one of those services,” Dr. Hudson said.
“I’m passionate about caring for kids," she added. “My dream is actually for us to get beyond just treating and intervening when there’s a crisis; I truly hope that the long benefit from this center will be providing services that allow families to actually thrive and prevent any other problems that we're seeing today.”