There’s a new treatment center in Springfield for young people experiencing mental health crises. Centerstone, which Burrell Behavioral Health recently merged with, held a ceremonial grand opening Thursday for its Youth Resiliency Campus in north Springfield.
The nearly 28,000-square-foot building houses a youth behavioral health crisis center, an intensive outpatient treatment center and a youth residential treatment center.
The crisis center will serve those 12 to 18-years-old and provide immediate stabilization care.
"The Youth Behavioral Crisis Center is such a huge benefit for our community," said Joe Uhl, director of youth stabilization services at Centerstone. "Having youth being able to step into a facility, be assessed for a crisis situation, provided clinical, medical and behavioral support and then reintegrating back into the community very quickly not only helps keep kids out of placement that they may or may not need to be in, but it also provides a spot for families and youth to go if they're feeling dysregulated or they just need some help."
During an event Thursday to celebrate the YRC's opening, Lauren Cramer, assistant director for youth residential services at Centerstone, shared her personal story of struggle and how having a place like YRC would have given her a safe space to heal.
Cramer talked about how the dream for the YRC came to life across a conference table and was fueled by a former 17-year-old client who "wasn't sure that anybody could help her, and trusting help just felt as risky as surviving on her own."
She said that client's story was similar to her own, which began as a little girl who "was afraid of the person in her life that was supposed to love her most." She dreamed of a life "where the noises in my head would be quiet, the chaos around me would stop and that someone would finally help my understand what was happening inside of me."
She was placed in juvenile detention and left alone for days at just 16-years-old. She turned to substance use to cope. But when she began working at Burrell Behavioral Health, she said, she was surrounded by people who helped her to begin to understand my own story.
"I found my footing and (was) given tools that I'd never had before," Cramer said. "I experienced what it felt like to be safe and to begin healing."
She said that's what the Youth Resiliency Campus will offer to young people today.
"We will see them. We will support them," she said. "We will be a safe place built on understanding, connection and care while they learn the tools, the confidence and the resilience they need to build lives that they are not only safe in, but proud of."
The crisis center will serve youth across Missouri. The outpatient treatment center and residential treatment center will serve a 7-county area in southwest Missouri.
More than 15 team members will move their work from Burrell Behavioral Health’s Milano House in Nixa to the Youth Resiliency campus.
The $13 million YRC was funded by a $5.3 million American Recovery Plan Act allocation from Greene County and $1 million from the Missouri Department of Mental Health. An additional $5 million was allocated for the project in the 2025-2026 Missouri State budget.
Speaking Thursday in Springfield, Governor Mike Kehoe called the YRC a lifeline.
"It's a place where care is coordinated, intentional and focused on long term success," he said.
