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EDITORIAL: Great project for mental health care

The Citizens' Voice - 4/2/2021

Apr. 2—High-level health care has become one of Northeast Pennsylvania's major growth industries, significantly improving the regional economy even while creating greater access to care.

From Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, to major investments in local hospitals by Geisinger Health System and Commonwealth Health, to construction of a new hospital in Dickson City by the Lehigh Valley Health Network, major health care providers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Lackawanna County alone. And similar investments have occurred throughout the region, such as the $80 million expansion of the Frank M. and Dorothy Henry Cancer Center at Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

As in much of the country, however, mental health care access has been the unfortunate exception to the vast expansion in facilities and access to services in Northeast Pennsylvania. The medical school has increased its focus on mental health, and the number of treatment centers has grown in response to the epic opioid addiction crisis, yet inadequate access to mental health services remains a serious problem.

It's especially welcome news, then, that Geisinger and Acadia Health Care Co. jointly will invest $80 million to develop two new behavioral health centers. Construction will begin this fall on a 96-bed, 73,000-square-foot behavioral health hospital in the Glenmaura Corporate Center, Moosic, scheduled to open in 2022. The partnership will construct a similar hospital near Geisinger headquarters in Danville, Montour County, to open in 2023.

Tennessee-based Acadia provides psychiatric and chemical dependency services in a variety of settings, including schools.

In addition to providing badly needed mental health services, the two hospitals will create about 200 permanent jobs.

This project enhances health care, a regional growth industry and, more important, is a significant step in filling a major gap in the region's health care availability.

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