Charlotte (Queen City News) — Construction crews are expected to break ground by late summer or early fall on the Katy Blessing Center, a new mental health facility for children and teens in east Charlotte.
There’s not much to see at the moment, but this place has potential.
“They’re going to heal here. We’re going to keep them out of prison,” said Jamie Bearer, strategic planning director for the Katie Blessing Foundation, StarMed’s nonprofit arm.
Bearer’s brother had no such experiences during his childhood.
“He had a lot of behavioral issues and they didn’t know what to do with him so they locked him in the basement of the school,” Bearer said.
She believes childhood abuse and untreated mental illness were to blame for her brother’s homelessness at age 13.
Bearer tried to help.
“I mean, I was probably 11 years old when I was bringing him food on the street,” Bearer said.
She said things got worse and her brother became addicted to drugs and became violent as an adult, to the point where he ended up in a maximum security prison.
“I knew, and I still know, that we as a society have let him down, that we’ve let our children down.”
Bearer is director of strategic planning for StarMed’s nonprofit arm, the Katie Blessing Foundation.
The foundation is working to build a $63 million children’s mental health facility in east Charlotte.
“Every single referral that has come across my desk since the pandemic has been kids struggling with mental health issues,” Bearer said.
Bearer, a former special education director and teacher, said there are big gaps in mental health care for young people in and around Charlotte, and not enough beds, forcing families to travel out of state for care.
“The specific data we studied primarily focused on men who engaged in aggressive behavior. [the] “The juvenile justice system,” Bearer said.
The facility will provide pediatric behavioral health emergency care, acute inpatient care, inpatient psychiatric care and outpatient care, and also plans to implement programs including treating children suffering from anxiety, depression and autism, as well as supporting victims of sex trafficking.
“I just want to cry because this place will never go under. I feel like the kids are here to make a difference,” Bearer said.
She will be helping families like her own.
“We can be a solution for people like my brother. That’s why I’m here.”
Officials don’t want the Katy Blessing Center to have a hospital-like atmosphere.
Children receiving treatment there do not wear scrubs; they can choose their own clothing from a shop on campus.
They have places to play and teachers to help them stay on track with their school work.
The center is scheduled to open next fall.
