This year, KVC Hospitals Kansas City is commemorating 30 years of serving children and families throughout Kansas and Missouri. When a child or teen is struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, the impacts of trauma, or other mental health disorders, their family turns to KVC for hope. Serving more than 28,000 admissions over the past three decades, we have been privileged to save thousands of lives and heal thousands of families.

Watch this video to hear from leaders and staff in Kansas City who are helping to pave the way for the future of behavioral health treatment. Hear about their passion for their work and why these services are so critically important to the children and families they serve.

Transforming Behavioral Health and Child Welfare in Kansas

Our Kansas City facility, with a 48-bed children’s psychiatric hospital and 48-bed residential treatment program, signifies KVC’s first step in creating a full continuum of care for children who are struggling to achieve wellness and deserve compassionate, safe spaces for healing. KVC began integrating behavioral health treatment with the child welfare system 30 years ago because we recognized that the trauma youth were experiencing needed to be addressed immediately with therapeutic care, or there would be more detrimental long-term impacts to their health and wellbeing. Over the years, we have been honored to serve as a safety net in the State of Kansas for youth who are most vulnerable and most at risk.

This Kansas City treatment center has played a big role in the start-up and long-term success of the nation’s first privatized child welfare system, which has helped pave the way for many more positive changes. While there is still room to grow and improve our child welfare system, we are proud to have helped it come a long way.

How We Help Children Heal

Our team of psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, nurses and other medical professionals integrate physical and mental health care to treat and heal the whole child for overall wellness. When a child is admitted to KVC for treatment, our first goal is to stabilize the crisis the child is experiencing and identify the triggers that led to the crisis. We then create a treatment plan based on each child’s unique life experiences to find the therapeutic approach that will work best for each child’s individual needs.

Throughout the treatment process, we focus on helping each child develop resilience, coping skills, and emotion regulation tools as well as educating their family about their illness and equipping them with tools for maintaining and continuing progress at home. We want to help each child return home as soon as safely possible so they can continue receiving treatment in an outpatient setting where they are surrounded by family, friends and other support systems.

Watch this inspiring video from Janny, a Therapist at KVC Hospitals Kansas City. Janny shares about a teen girl’s struggle with suicide and how receiving urgent, compassionate treatment from KVC changed her life and gave her hope.

Expanding Hope to More People

With proven expertise, an unwavering commitment to our mission, and the generosity of private donors, we have been able to expand the reach of these life-saving services. In 2010 we opened a children’s psychiatric treatment center in Hays so that we could expand access to more youth in rural and frontier areas of Kansas. Today this 50-bed residential treatment program focuses on providing longer-term, intensive clinical services for youth who are not actively in crisis but who have struggled to experience treatment progress in an outpatient setting.

Most recently, in 2019, we opened a children’s psychiatric hospital in Wichita after recognizing a surge of youth mental health needs in Sedgwick County and surrounding areas. This 54-bed hospital has allowed us to significantly expand our ability to serve more children closer to home.

Thank You to Our Supporters

There are so many people who have played a paramount role in helping KVC develop its Kansas City treatment center, strengthen communities, expand access to care to more families, and most importantly, help children heal and live happy lives.

Thank you to all of the incredible employees from KVC’s past and present. You are the heart of our work. You are the lifelines to the children we serve as you develop connections, support them, and show them what it is to be unconditionally cared for.

We are extremely grateful to all of the volunteers and donors who have supported us throughout the years to make this work not only possible but effective with positive outcomes for children and families. Without your support, it would be impossible to fund these treatment programs that are so critically needed in our communities.

We are thankful for the partnerships we have built with government officials, healthcare providers, child welfare agencies, school districts, and other individuals and organizations to enhance the quality of life for the people we all work to serve. Our work together is transforming lives and we are proud to do that alongside each of you.

And a special thanks to the families who have trusted us to care for their children. We know that navigating the healthcare system can feel overwhelming and it can be difficult to know what path to take or who to trust with your child’s care. We are honored to serve you and to be your source of support and hope during your times of highest need.