As demand for pediatric mental health care grows, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is expanding behavioral health services south of the city. Children’s officials unveiled plans Wednesday for a $10 million expansion of pediatric behavioral health and subspeciality services at UPMC Children’s South campus.
“I don’t need to tell you that behavioral health needs among our children and our teens needs to expand,” Diane Hupp, president of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said during a press conference. “These are important services that together we can collaboratively and seamlessly provide expert care for our patients and families.”
The hospital, located in Bridgeville Borough, plans to expand services into the previously unused fourth floor of the building, focused on child development.
The renovations, expected to finish by mid-2027, will feature nine treatment rooms, consulting areas, observation rooms, a creative arts therapy center and a parent-child interaction therapy room, which uses real-time coaching by providers for parents to improve their relationship with their child.
The goal is to pair medical services with social support, Hupp said.
“We’ve found that not only taking care of medical needs, but the entire social, developmental, and emotional needs is just as important,” she said.
Officials stressed the need for services that mirror what is available at UPMC Children’s Lawrenceville campus, but closer to communities south of Pittsburgh.
Nearly one in five adolescents aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode between 2021 and 2023 in Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Kiley Koscinski
/
90.5 WESA
UPMC Children’s Hospital South Campus
The fourth floor renovations build upon the hospital’s growing list of behavioral health services. UPMC’s Children’s South campus launched a walk-in mental health clinic for children and teens last November. Therapists and psychologists are available from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Children and teens can walk in for same-day care without an appointment and receive intervention as well as referrals to resources.
Expanding care into communities south of Pittsburgh could encourage more families to seek out support, said Dr. Abigail Schlesinger, clinical chief of child and adolescent psychiatry. She’s also hopeful more families will find support before a crisis arises.
“The needs for children and adolescents for psychiatric and developmental support continue to grow, and people shouldn’t have to drive very far to get the services they need,” she said.
The expansion of behavioral health services comes more than a year after UPMC terminated most gender-affirming care support for the region’s transgender youth. Staff opposed to the change warned that Pittsburgh could see a spike in suicidal teens struggling through a puberty that does not align with their gender identity.
Schelsinger couldn’t say Wednesday whether the health system’s gender-affirming care changes have worsened the mental health crisis among local youth.
“It’s hard to tell what the changes have been. People will certainly tell you individual stories,” Schlesinger said. “Youth that struggle with diversity of any sort … struggle.”
The clinic will offer additional developmental testing and support for kids on the autism spectrum, Schlesinger said. Those services were previously only available at the UPMC Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville.
“At UPMC, we’re working hard to provide appropriate behavioral and developmental services to support all youth,” she said. “We’re focusing on being the door for any kid with any needs.”