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In Butner, a new in-patient facility has unique focus on youth mental health

N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley (holding scissors on left) and UNC Health CEO Dr. Wesley Burks at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the UNC Hospitals Youth Behavioral Hospital in Butner
Brian Strickland
/
UNC Health
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley (holding scissors on left) and UNC Health CEO Dr. Wesley Burks at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the UNC Hospitals Youth Behavioral Hospital in Butner

Suicide rates are on increasing among children and teens and depression is also one of several mental health crises that are under-addressed within these age groups.

In Butner, an in-patient facility offers 54 beds dedicated to children and teens in a first-of-its-kind model for addressing youth mental health.

UNC Hospitals Youth Behavioral Health was formed in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, chair of the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joins Due South to discuss the importance of this innovative hospital.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.