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TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — Cheers rang out as the final steel beam was lifted to the top of the new Primary Children’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center on Tuesday, marking the completion of structural work on the building.
Caregivers, patients, families, construction team members and community leaders were all in attendance to celebrate the latest major milestone for the facility, which will serve the mental health needs of children and adolescents when it opens in 2025.
“This will be our flagship for addressing the mental health needs of children,” said Amanda Choudhary, senior director of pediatric behavioral health at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “Today, we’re here to commemorate a milestone much bigger than all of us — and made possible by all of us.”
The new facility will include a crisis assessment and intake center, intensive outpatient services, inpatient psychiatric care, counseling and more — providing Utah’s youth with world-class behavioral treatment options. Young patients who are having serious thoughts of self-harm, or who are experiencing any urgent or semi-urgent behavioral or mental illness episode, can regain stability through the care they receive here.
“The Intermountain West, like the rest of the nation, is suffering a pediatric mental health crisis,” said Dr. Lisa Giles, Dr. Lisa Giles, medical director of pediatric behavioral health at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “Our children deserve better, and help is on the way.”
Giles noted that the new facility, which is being built on the same site as the Wasatch Canyons Behavioral Health Campus that it is replacing, expands the overall capacity and efficiency of pediatric behavioral health services available to Utahns. For example, she said, it will increase the number of available inpatient beds by 50%.
Prior to the placement of the final beam, more than 780 tons of structural steel — roughly equivalent to the weight of 17 commercial airline jets — had already been added to the 90,000-square-foot facility. Led by Jacobsen Construction, a total of 45 firms are working together to complete the building.
“This building is much more than just a structure to our organization,” said Jacobsen Construction President and CEO Gary Ellis. “It’s a place that embodies our wishes for all who will come here to receive much-needed services. … We are building this building for the life that will go in inside of these walls.”
The construction of the Primary Children’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center is being supported both by the State of Utah and by Primary Promise, Intermountain’s campaign to build America’s model pediatric health care system. At a recent open house celebration, members of the community had the opportunity to sign their name to the final steel beam before it was raised.
“As represented by the hundreds of signatures decorating this ceremonial beam,” said Choudhary, “behavioral health takes all of us.”
