Douglasville behavioral health care campus is growing to help more young people with trauma

Caption

Tanya Anderson stands at a podium on ribbon cutting day for the Youth Villages expansion in Douglasville, Ga.

Credit: Youth Villages

A residential facility that treats children with behavioral health challenges is expanding in Douglasville. The Inner Harbour campus of Youth Villages now has an administrative building and a cottage that, when complete, will accommodate 16 more young people between between the ages of 6 and 17.

The youth program is designed to support the social, emotional, mental and physical needs of people living through trauma, Youth Villages Executive Director Tanya Anderson said.

"What we're typically seeing is that families are experiencing a lot of hardships in the community," Anderson said. "Oftentimes, there have been young people that have experienced abuse. There are some challenges with neglect."

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She said community-based, or “front end” treatment is ideal, but access to inpatient care is also critical.

"When there is a need to do what we call the 'back-end' work, when they have to be out of the home and in facilities, having the appropriate facilities to be able to do that is is so vitally important," she said, noting the shortage of residential behavioral health care facilities in the country.

Not everyone knows what to look for when it comes to youth mental health, but behaviors are indicative of their experiences, she said. 

"Parents oftentimes need a lot of support in understanding the needs of their child in the home, whether that is diagnosis or whether that is medication, coping skills, and just different interventions to use with them in the home setting," Anderson said.

The expansion project that began in 2023 and is projected to be finished by 2028 is the largest investment Youth Villages has made in its nearly 40-year history, Anderson said.

Future phases of the project will include four additional youth residence cottages that will house a total of 172 youth, a new education building and a wellness recreation center where children will be able to engage in sport activities.