North Alabama Shoals Hospital prepared to open a new adolescent behavioral health unit

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WAFF) – North Alabama Shoals Hospital just received approval from the state to add additional beds to its psychiatric unit.

The hospital received approval from the State Health Planning and Development Agency’s Certificate of Need Review Board to move forward with its behavioral health expansion project.

Not only will there be more space for people in need, but the hospital is also setting up a unit for teenagers. The first of its kind in the Shoals area.

The new program they are introducing will provide specialized psychiatric care for adolescents. It will also improve access to adult mental health services in the area by adding new beds to the unit.

“We have seen a steady increase in need year over year,” said COO Braxton Holloway. “We pursued this project all the more.”

Braxton Holloway, chief operating officer of Shoals Hospital, said this will be only the second juvenile psychiatric facility of its kind in north Alabama.

The other is over an hour away in Decatur. If this is full, they may have to send patients mobile.

“It will have a very significant impact because they won’t have to travel,” Holloway said. “Right now, the family I was talking about has to go all the way to Mobile and seek services outside of Colbert County and the Muscle Shoals area. That’s quite a distance to travel to have a loved one, especially a child, somewhere in the unit.”

Holloway said about 40% of hospital admissions are in the behavioral health unit.

He said given the pervasive mental health crisis, there are simply never enough beds, so this addition is urgently needed.

“I hope that more will certainly think about it, because the need is great,” Holloway said. “And there are still not enough beds, even if we ultimately propose 24 additional beds. That means we will still fill them up immediately.”

They will add eight adult beds in addition to the 16 beds they will receive for the new juvenile unit.

“In our county alone, this year alone we have had to deny 389 transfer requests from other facilities due to additional needs and 189 patients have had to be transferred out of our community, 50 and 60 of which were juveniles,” Holloway explained.

Once the project is underway, Holloway said it should only take about nine to 12 months and each unit will remain operational throughout the renovation phases. Completion of the new units is scheduled for the end of 2025.

Holloway has only been at the hospital for two years and is looking forward to making a positive difference at the hospital.

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