WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky — In an effort to bridge the access gap in mental health services, the Children's Home of Northern Kentucky, or CHNK Behavioral Health, on Friday opened a new location in Grant County.
The 3,000-square-foot building, located in Williamstown, marks the company's fourth brick-and-mortar location.
"The type of kids and the needs that they're having today — they're not powder puffs and snowflakes," said Rick Wurth, CHNK Behavioral Health CEO. "They have serious issues that need to be addressed."
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2022, for every 1,147 Grant County residents, the municipality only had one mental health care provider.
"The needs of rural communities are certainly unique," said Adam Roland, vice president of outpatient services. "One of the challenges ... is that there's not a lot of money in behavior outpatient behavioral health treatment."
Roland would know, having grown up 15 minutes down the road from the new facility.
"I saw the need while I was in school, and being able to come back and help to meet that need is just really mind-blowing for me," he said.
The facility holds office space for five therapists, two group rooms for intensive outpatient therapy and partial hospitalizations and individual therapy rooms.
"We can work with, really, a person across [their] lifespan, everyone in the family if there's a need — adults, children, adolescents," outpatient therapist Rachael Sholar said. "It is a rural area, and so there is sometimes transportation barriers to get to other services."
Sholar has worked with CHNK Behavioral Health for seven years.
"We're really able to work with each family to individualize what they're needing, what level of care they're needing," she said. "We are able to come in and have a continuum of services to offer these families that otherwise would have to be going to different places for different things."
For more information on accessing CHNK Behavioral Health's services, visit its website here.
