State regulators signed off on a proposal from Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vt., to construct a roughly $10 million psychiatric unit for adolescents, overruling concerns from the Brattleboro Retreat and a disability advocacy group.
In a unanimous decision, the Green Mountain Care Board, a state health care regulator, voted March 19 to issue a certificate of need — effectively, a permission slip allowing the project to move forward.
The five-member board wrote that “there is an urgent need for additional inpatient mental health capacity” in a document outlining its decision.
“The project will improve the quality of health care and improve access by increasing the number of adolescent inpatient mental health beds available in Vermont,” the decision states.
The unit has been in the works since 2022, when the Bennington hospital responded to a state request for proposals to build an inpatient mental health care unit.
To build the new facility, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is proposing to renovate nearly 7,000 square feet on a ground floor of one of its buildings. The 12-bed unit will house youths 12 to 17 and “will include spaces for group and individual therapy, sensory mitigation, social service consultation, quiet and active socializing and learning, and staff documentation and support,” according to board documents.
The unit will be supported with $10.25 million in state funds, $1 million of which is for operations during its first year.
“We thank the Green Mountain Care Board for the careful review and support of this project, which represents an important expansion of adolescent mental health services for Vermont,” Thomas Dee, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s president and CEO, said in an emailed statement. “We are grateful to take this next step to support adolescents and their families through this program.”
The proposed unit spent over a year in the Green Mountain Care Board’s certificate of need process, during which it drew concerns from the nonprofit Disability Rights Vermont and the Brattleboro Retreat, a psychiatric hospital that operates its own youth inpatient program.
Disability Rights Vermont argued that the state’s money would be better spent shoring up less-intensive mental health services in the community, such as counseling or school resources.
And the Brattleboro Retreat said it was unclear exactly how much demand for inpatient treatment existed — and that the new unit in the Bennington hospital could draw patients away and cut into its business, to the tune of $10 million annually.
The board, however, gave the project the green light despite those concerns. If the Retreat’s business is affected by the project, the board wrote, it has the ability to adapt.
“Mental health needs in Vermont are substantial and the Retreat is in a strong position to assess those needs in order to meet them,” the board wrote.
Kathryn Czaplinski, a spokesperson for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, said it was unclear exactly when the unit could be completed, but construction should take about eight months once the permitting process is finalized.