Charlotte became a partner Monday night in a planned behavioral health center for children.

City Council approved a $2.5 million allocation to support the Katie Blessing Center, a facility from StarMed Healthcare. The facility will be in the east Charlotte corridor at 5516 Central Avenue.

The Katie Blessing Center will be the largest and most advanced pediatric health care facility in the state. City leaders say services will focus on the whole child and include:

– Behavioral health urgent care

– Acute inpatient hospital

– Residential treatment facility

– Traditional outpatient care, including telehealth and family intervention to support thoughtful transitional care.

The Katie Blessing Foundation is the nonprofit division of StarMed, and has already committed $20 million for the 70,000-square-foot facility. Its estimated total cost is $63 million.

“I’m excited to — with the support of my colleagues — potentially be a partner,” said Councilwoman Marjorie Molina, who represents east Charlotte. “Speaking to the StarMed team in the beginning of the vision, behind what this would be, it was really StarMed putting their money where their mouth was. They came in with $20 million of their own money, saying ‘This is what we’d like to do for our region, for our area…’”

 

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