Meeting Oklahoma's Greatest  Unmet Need

For too many Oklahoma families, a mental health crisis begins with a terrifying reality: there is nowhere to go.

Mental health challenges are one of the most urgent – and too often overlooked – issues facing our state’s children. One in five Oklahoma youth struggle with mental health issues. Forty percent of youth who need mental health services aren’t receiving them due to lack of access. Behind these numbers are real families searching for help, often during their most vulnerable moments. Long wait times, too few providers and a lack of pediatric-specific services can leave parents and caregivers feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to turn.

OU Health is answering this crisis by building something unprecedented in our state: the Oklahoma Children's OU Health Behavioral Health Center. 

This state-of-the-art facility will provide comprehensive, compassionate and research-driven mental health care for children and adolescents ages 5-17. It will serve families across Oklahoma and ensure that care is accessible when it matters most.

Purpose-built spaces like therapy rooms, family resource areas and stigma-reducing environments will help children feel safe and supported from the moment they walk through the doors.

Spanning more than 172,000 square feet, the center is designed with healing in mind. It will include 72 inpatient beds for both crisis stabilization and longer-term treatment, expanded emergency services with specialized behavioral health rooms and a full range of outpatient programs, including Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient. Purpose-built spaces like therapy rooms, family resource areas and stigma-reducing environments will help children feel safe and supported from the moment they walk through the doors.

Care will extend beyond a hospital stay. A coordinated network of outpatient and community partnerships will help children and families transition successfully back to daily life. As Oklahoma’s only academic health system, OU Health will also train the next generation of pediatric behavioral health professionals to strengthen care statewide.

Your support for the Behavioral Health Center helps:

• Expand access to pediatric mental health services across Oklahoma
• Provide crisis stabilization and long-term therapeutic care
• Deliver comprehensive outpatient programs for children and families
• Train future behavioral health leaders for our state

Mental health care is health care. And for a child in crisis, access can mean the difference between despair and hope.

When you give to OU Health, you invest in a future where every Oklahoma child has access to the behavioral health care they deserve. Join us this Giving Day and help meet one of the most urgent needs facing our state today.