New Child Psychiatric Hospital Opens In Wheeling

A new psychiatric hospital focusing on children and adolescents opened Monday in the Northern Panhandle. 

Orchard Park Hospital in Wheeling is for youth ages 5 to 18 years who are in immediate need of acute psychiatric care.

The 30-bed hospital will provide acute mental health care for children and teens in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Cory Carr, hospital administrator, explained that, in the event of a psychiatric crisis, the facility can provide patients 24-hour services in order to stabilize them including group therapy, individual therapy and consultations with doctors. 

“The key to all of that is to find stabilization,” he said. “We want to find if medication is what they need, if a new coping mechanism is what they need, the goal is to find what they need to stabilize them and reintroduce them into the community.”

Jacquelyn Knight, Orchard Park’s CEO, said there has been a gap in service in the region for several years, and children’s need for psychiatric services has only increased since the pandemic.

“Between the pandemic and the different things kids go through with cyberbullying and social media and just societal pressures, there’s a lot of stress to be a kid. It’s very, very hard,” she said. “There are times when they just need help dealing with some of those mental health crises. We’re really fortunate that we’re able to meet that need now.”

Knight said The Children’s Home of Wheeling took over the facility of another psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, the Byrd Center, that closed in 2019, to create Orchard Park Hospital. 

She said Orchard Park Hospital is actively hiring.

“We are still actively hiring mental health technicians, nurses and kitchen staff to work here at the hospital,” she said. “It’s a very rewarding career choice, you get to make a difference in the lives of kids that are really in need. We’d love to bring some more wonderful people on our team.”