Pediatric Behavioral and Mental Health Care: Expanding and Sharing Nationwide Children’s Proven Model

Nationwide Children’s has garnered significant attention for its groundbreaking work for children and families experiencing mental health crises including the opening of the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion in March 2020. Nationwide Children’s will continue to advance this work by investing in new clinical programs, staff and clinicians, and innovative resources for parents and other providers. A notable expansion will be in behavioral health research where Nationwide Children’s will seek to better understand the nature of mental health in children, develop better diagnostics, treatment and preventative strategies. The hospital’s experts will also partner with other community-based behavioral health organizations to help address the need for patient access across all systems of care.

“Nationwide Children’s has become a national model for mental and behavioral health care for children and adolescents. We will further this commitment to integrated care and national advocacy,” said Bruce Thorn, CEO of Big Lots and Nationwide Children’s Board of Directors member. “The Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion enables us to provide high-quality, acute care for kids in crisis, and we will continue to do even more to meet the significant needs of our region and to address this national crisis.”

On Our Sleeves®, the national movement for children’s mental health launched by Nationwide Children’s in 2018, will expand with an aim to provide every community in America with free resources necessary for breaking child mental health stigmas and educating families and advocates. The platform has served 2 million people since its launch with plans to double-down on those efforts.

Nationwide Children’s will also share learnings about its health equity, population health, behavioral health and value-based care leadership through a new online resource, The Collaboratory for Kids & Community Health.