Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Jonesboro community leaders and members gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Methodist Children’s Behavioral Hospital on Tuesday morning.

The facility, which will begin accepting clients on Jan. 19, is a 70-bed acute psychiatric hospital serving patients under 18. It will act as a short-term inpatient treatment center for those experiencing mental health crises.

“We’re super excited to because this an area that has needed pediatric psychiatric patient care for years,” clinical director Sarah Sumpter told JRN. “The community’s really embraced it and we’re really excited to bring the service here to this part of the state.”

During the ceremony, tours of the facility’s intake, recreational, dining and residential areas were shown to the community.

Patients’ day-to-day activities will mirror a typical school day while school is in session, Sumpter said, with them also attending classes, group therapy, and other group activities. When school is not in session, the amount of time patients will spend in group activities will increase.

Throughout the three-story building are hand-painted murals painted by Dr. Susan Whiteland, professor of art education at Arkansas State University and several A-State students. The Junior Auxiliary Crown Club of Jonesboro painted ceiling tiles for the facility, according to a news release from the hospital.

The release said the hospital will also serve as a training and observation facility for A-State students in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, as well as Department of Psychology and Counseling students.

In Craighead County, Methodist Family Health operates the Dacus Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in Bono, which is an inpatient facility for teenage boys with chronic disorders. It also runs the Methodist Counseling Clinic in Jonesboro, as well as counseling programs in the Jonesboro and Nettleton school districts and at Success Academy in Jonesboro.

It operates a second behavioral hospital in Maumelle, as well as several other inpatient and outpatient facilities across the state.

“This Jonesboro hospital, along with our Maumelle facility, are the only nonprofit pediatric/adolescent psychiatric hospitals in the state of Arkansas. We are really proud of that,” Sumpter told JRN. “They’ll bring that to people in this community that are uninsured, or Medicaid, or have any kind of financial challenges. We’re here to help them.”

The facility is located at 3024 Red Wolf Blvd., Suite 1.