With your help, Boston Children's and our sister hospital, Franciscan Children's, are creating New England’s premier home for child mental health care and a new paradigm for healing.
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Picture a place where children experiencing mental health conditions, and their loved ones, can find community, connection and healing.
Brimming with life and natural beauty, our campus will go beyond creating more beds to meet the current crisis. This hospital will embody a new approach to healing mental health conditions, incorporating our unmatched expertise in pediatric research and transforming the landscape of health care.
Advancing Treatments for More Kids
Designed around the specific needs of children and adolescents, our new hospital and campus in Brighton, Massachusetts, will encompass all aspects of treatment, from crisis care to residential programs and prevention. It will include:
- Single-bed inpatient rooms to readily admit any child with the greatest need, regardless of gender or age
- Comprehensive programs for patients with autism or intellectual challenges—children who today have some of the longest waits for care
- Day programs and intensive outpatient services that fill gaps in currently available care
Embracing the Entire Family
When a child experiences symptoms of depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions, the impact ripples through the whole family, often made worse by feelings of stigma and isolation.
Our light-filled hospital will make patients and their families feel welcome, comfortable and safe.
A sensory-friendly environment will invite the outdoors in. And children from all backgrounds will see themselves in the art and design of spaces.
Parents can stay close by, with beds for sleeping in and amenities such as laundry and kitchenette facilities. Caregivers will be able to work remotely, access resources or relax in the Family Resource Center. Visiting families will find healthy snacks and light meals in the sunlit café.
A nurturing environment will support all family members as they heal and gain the skills and tools to navigate life back at home.
Introducing Boston's Greenest Hospital
Our plans will not only create seven acres of vibrant green space for patients and staff; they aim to benefit the surrounding neighborhood.
Our community will feel the therapeutic power of nature and art. An almost 30-foot-wide garden will stretch the length of the campus, a vibrant landscape filled with native trees, flowers and plants—and the birds, butterflies and other pollinators they attract. This stretch will also include several large art installations from local and regional artists.
We will use environmentally-friendly geothermal wells to heat and cool the building. A large rain garden will offer scenic vistas from its boardwalk, while preventing flooding during storms, filtering urban pollutants and reducing water needed for irrigation.
Meeting the World's Needs
Our new campus will also serve as the launch pad for tomorrow's experts.
We’ll train more than 100 professionals in the field annually, including behavioral health specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and other staff, and host as many as 20 global mental health fellows within the first 10 years of opening our campus.
Research conducted within the clinics will help us diagnose mental health conditions sooner—and follow patients’ responses to treatment. And our doors will be open to patients from many backgrounds, ensuring that new therapies work for everyone.
The campus expansion will also allow us to host parent and teen mentor programs, and learning circles for teachers, school staff and other community educators.