Montefiore Medical Center, the primary teaching hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, has shared plans to build a paediatric inpatient psychiatry unit.

The Montefiore Einstein Center for Children’s Mental Health is being developed to meet the urgent mental health needs of children and adolescents in the Bronx region.

It will be located on the New York City Children’s Center campus, next to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx.

The 21-bed facility has secured nearly $6m from the New York State Assembly speaker Carl Heastie and assembly member Michael Benedetto.

It is part of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein (CHAM) and will expand CHAM’s existing capacity to offer comprehensive medical and behavioural health services to young people in the region.

Designed for intensive treatment, the centre will treat young people suffering from trauma, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, psychosis and other acute psychiatric conditions.

The paediatric psychiatry unit project is currently pending regulatory approval from the New York State Department of Health and Office of Mental Health.

Once approved, it will aim to improve access to treatment for Bronx patients and promote equitable care, as well as offer comprehensive training opportunities for medical students and other health professionals. 

Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences Silverman University chair Jonathan Alpert said: “Our commitment to youth mental health is a mainstay of who we are at Montefiore and now is the moment for us advance treatment, bringing more access and new models of care to the Bronx through the creation of this 21-bed unit.

“We are proud to work in collaboration with Speaker Heastie and Assemblyman Benedetto to address rising mental and behavioural health needs; our mutual goal is to make a positive difference in the lives of young New Yorkers.”