At a recent event in Garner, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein rolled up his sleeves alongside officials from WakeMed to mark the start of construction for a promising new health campus, one aimed squarely at bolstering the state's mental health services. Stein and company are banking heavily on the belief that improving mental health access is key to a healthier, safer community across the state. The new campus, according to a statement obtained by the Governor's office, will be a sanctuary for whole-person care, sporting a 150-bed mental health facility and a 45-bed acute care hospital.
"A healthier North Carolina is a safer North Carolina, and WakeMed's whole-person health campus will support the state's growing need for mental health services," Governor Stein said during the groundbreaking, as per the North Carolina Office of the Governor website. Donald Gintzig, WakeMed's president & CEO, chimed in, expressing gratitude for the robust support the initiative has received, welcoming what he calls a transformative care approach for the community that simultaneously tackles mental health care and the pervasive stigma around it.
Generosity isn't running short for this enterprise, with a tidy $6 million coming from both Wake County and the area's Congressional delegation, and additional funding courtesy of the WakeMed Foundation. Once complete, the 53-acre health behemoth will feature an emergency department ready all day every day, a full spectrum of diagnostic services along with soothing inclusions such as art and music therapy facilities, not to mention the evidently crucial in-patient and out-patient amenities, plus operating and procedural rooms.
It isn't all about new buildings, though. The North Carolina biennium budget from 2023-2025 was historic in its own right, plowing a record $835 million into behavioral health, footing the bill for mobile crisis teams crisis receiving teams, and importantly, crisis stabilization beds dedicated to children. in a bid to tackle the issue head-on, Governor Stein is calling on the General Assembly to keep this momentum rolling—to keep reinvesting and constructing a resilient behavioral health framework for North Carolinians far and wide.
