The tools are out, and renovations are officially underway at the facility that will become the Peoria area’s main hub for children’s behavioral health services.
The Trillium Place Young Minds Center will be housed at the former Heddington Oaks Nursing Home, 2223 W. Heading Ave., in West Peoria. Trillium Place is an affiliate of Carle Health, which took over properties managed by UnityPoint Health earlier this year.
Mary Sparks Thompson, president of Trillium Place, said the facility will have 44 inpatient beds for children, double the current capacity.
“The Young Minds Center will be a place of help and support to improve well-being and create a healthier future for youth in our community,” Sparks-Thompson said.
The center will offer inpatient and outpatient children’s behavioral health services, including crisis services, counseling, and addiction services.
Dr. Napoleon Knight, executive vice president and chief medical officer of Carle Health, said these are essential services in Central Illinois.
“Practicing in an emergency environment is complicated at best,” Knight said. “And over the course of the last few years it’s become even more difficult, especially in the behavioral health space where we’ve oftentimes had to transfer patients to multiple other states because we didn’t have facilities of our own.”
Part of the building will also be used to house care providers outside of Trillium Place to offer services which also relate to children’s behavioral health.
Trillium leaders say they are on target to meet their fundraising goals for the facility, but hope to raise another million before the end of the year.
Renovations will continue until early 2024, when the facility is expected to open.
