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Cincinnati Children’s and Lindner Center of HOPE Join Forces to Enhance Mental Health Care

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Lindner Center of HOPE are collaborating to enhance mental healthcare for adolescents in the Cincinnati area.

Cincinnati Children’s will lease a 16-bed inpatient unit at the Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason and an adjacent, partial hospitalization program to treat adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17. Partial hospitalization is a program in which patients live at home but come to a treatment center during the day. Partial hospitalization focuses on overall treatment, rather than just the safety of an individual, so the program typically is not used for patients in an acute crisis.

Although all adolescent mental health diagnoses will be treated, the inpatient and partial hospitalization programs will focus on treating teens with eating disorders.

“This agreement brings together in one program and at one location each organization’s expertise in providing services to adolescents with eating disorders and other mental illnesses,” says Paul Keck, MD, president and CEO of the Lindner Center of HOPE. “Together, we will avoid duplication of services while offering more capacity to provide behavioral health services in the community. It was while clinicians from both organizations were working together to develop joint clinical protocols for these services that it became apparent that doing this together was the optimal course.”
The agreement calls for Cincinnati Children’s to lease space, utilities, dietary services, pharmacy, housekeeping, security and parking.
The Lindner Center of HOPE is a nonprofit, mental health center that provides patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. It is staffed by a diverse team, united in the philosophy that hope can best be offered for people living with mental illness though collaboration.

“The therapeutic environment at the Lindner Center of HOPE has consistently earned positive patient and family satisfaction survey scores since its inception in 2008, says Michael Sorter MD, director of psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s. “This environment is due significantly to the Center’s experienced and compassionate staff. Maintaining these standards is vital to benefitting teens and their families – in combination with Cincinnati Children’s expertise in mental health care service management. We will be hiring nursing staff and social workers from the Lindner Center to continue working with these adolescents.”

Cincinnati Children’s currently has 63 inpatient and 33 residential adolescent beds for mental health services at its Burnet Avenue and College Hill campuses.

Eating disorders are complex illnesses. Studies show that they are affecting adolescents with increasing frequency. Eating disorders rank as the third most common chronic illness in adolescent girls, with an incidence as much as five percent, according to the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM).

Eating disorders are associated with serious biological, psychological, and sociological complications that are best addressed by an interdisciplinary team of medical, nutritional, mental health and nursing professionals who are experienced in the evaluation and treatment of eating disorders and who have expertise in adolescent health, according to a 2003 SAHM position paper. Unique features of adolescents and the developmental process of adolescence are critical considerations in determining the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of eating disorders in this age group, the position paper states.

About Cincinnati Children’s

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is one of just eight children’s hospitals named to the Honor Roll in U.S. News and World Report’s 2010-11 Best Children’s Hospitals. It is ranked #1 for digestive disorders and highly ranked for its expertise in pulmonology, cancer, neonatology, heart and heart surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, diabetes and endocrinology, orthopedics, kidney disorders and urology. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health. It is internationally recognized for quality and transformation work by Leapfrog, The Joint Commission, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and by hospitals and health organizations it works with globally. Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.