CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 45 W hile making her daily rounds on the fih floor at Cape Fear Medical Center, child psychiatrist Sree Jadapalle, M.D., has been able to look out the window and watch as construction at street level below has progressed over the past year. "It's a really cool view," she said. "And it's been really quick." e clearing of the land, the sturdy steel-beam framework, the drywall and, soon, fresh coats of paint and comfortable furniture in soothing colors will combine to result in an anticipated December opening for the Dorothea Dix Care Unit for Adolescents at Cape Fear Valley, just over a year since the medical center broke ground on the facility in November 2020. For parents of an adolescent experiencing a mental health crisis, all those things represent security and hope. e idea of the center is years in the making, a longtime mutual goal of Ken Fleishman, M.D., who is one of four board-certified child psychiatrists with Cape Fear Valley Health, and John Bigger, who is Corporate Director of Cape Fear Valley Health's Behavioral Health and Sleep Center. Jadapalle will serve as the psychiatrist in charge of the services provided on the unit. "ere is a huge need for this," said Dr. Fleishman, who serves as medical director for psychiatry and behavioral health for Cape Fear Valley. "It will be a huge asset. And it will give us the opportunity to train younger child psychiatrists through offering a two-year fellowship in a new Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency program." Although the need is great for inpatient treatment for adolescents in Cumberland County, the cost of the center could have been prohibitive. Bigger said the Division of Health and Human Services through the Department of Mental Health saw the need and helped with funding. e 16-bed facility, located beside the Behavioral Health Care Center on the medical center campus, also will feature a secure outdoor recreational area. "It will be one of the coolest features of the whole thing," Bigger said. "Basketball courts and corn hole and a recreational therapist to teach kids how to deal with downtime." e center will house patients ages 13 to 17 with the goal of stabilizing adolescents Roy Bullard and Rodrigo Hernandez M.B. Kahn Construction Co., the firm overseeing the project, has collaborated with Cape Fear Valley Health to ensure the state-of-the-art center will include important features in comfort, security and care.

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