GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – ECU Health and Acadia Healthcare broke ground on what will become a state-of-the-art behavioral health hospital on Wednesday.

The project will cost more than $65 million to complete. The facility will be a 144-bed inpatient psychiatric care facility, with 24 of those beds specifically for children and adolescents.

“One of the things we see coming out of COVID is that not only has mental health prevalence reached over all populations, but it’s particularly pronounced with children,” Acadia Healthcare CEO Chris Hunter said. “We see a pronounced need with youth and adolescence and it’s something that we’re proud to serve, these patients every day.”

ECU Health, Acadia Healthcare to build new behavioral health hospital in Greenville

Acadia Healthcare specializes in behavioral and mental health with 250 facilities across the country. The facility will provide treatment for depression, PTSD, anxiety and more.

“Expanding those services for children and adolescents, geriatrics and having them all in a modern facility that supports patients and our faculty, and our team members gives us more capability and capacity. This is the next step in our evolution to provide care,” ECU Health CEO Michael Waldrum said.

The state wants to invest in projects like these, said NC Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kody Kinsley.

“North Carolina legislature made a once in a lifetime investment in behavioral health this session,” Kinsley said. “We have $700 million that our department is working to invest in projects like these to try to expand services across North Carolina.”

Wednesday’s groundbreaking was just the beginning. This facility is needed now more than ever, Kinsley said.

“The behavioral health needs in our community have been increasing for a long time. They’ve been underfunded in our community for years, and it’s time to do this resource and build on top of it,” Kinsley said.

ECU Health and Acadia Healthcare are excited for what this new partnership with bring to eastern North Carolina.

“This is for the inpatient acute care, so we’re planning a facility to do outpatient non-acute care for behavioral health on the same campus, so we’re already starting that planning. We haven’t finalized it, we’re starting that because of the support that the state gave us,” Waldrum said.

The plan is to have the project complete by 2025.