Behavioral Health Services

UK HealthCare’s behavioral health units provide behavioral health care, treatment, and services to patients age 5 and up. The adult unit is located at UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Hospital, and the adolescent unit is located at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. The staff on both units provide leading-edge mental health care while advancing professional practice.   

Adolescent unit

The Pediatric Behavioral Health Unit features semi-private rooms and one private room specifically designed for the care of pediatric patients. Patients who are 17 or under with behavioral health emergencies should be sent for evaluation to the Makenna David Pediatric Emergency Department at UK Chandler Hospital.

Adult unit

The 19-bed adult unit treats and provides services to adults with a wide array of psychiatric-mental health diagnoses, including but not limited to anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and personality and thought disorders, as well as substance use disorder. The adult unit is an acute-care setting, meaning that patients who are admitted require treatment for a mental illness but are treated for a brief period – days rather than months.

Certifications

Nursing and support staff who work on the behavioral health units have special certification requirements:

• BLS
• Crisis Prevention Intervention
• Suicide Assessment & Prevention

Eastern State Hospital

Eastern State Hospital provides recovery-focused, individualized inpatient acute-care mental health services. ESH, located off Newtown Pike in Lexington, is one of four state psychiatric hospitals in Kentucky. Opened in 1824, ESH is the second oldest, continuously operating psychiatric facility in the country. ESH and UK HealthCare are separate entities. ESH is state-owned but is managed by UK HealthCare through a contract with the Kentucky Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. UK HealthCare and ESH work in collaboration on education, orientation and other shared initiatives and concerns to support both patient and staff needs. 

ESH treats and provides acute psychiatric care for adults (age 18 and over) with severe and persistent mental illness who live in the 50 counties surrounding and including Fayette County, Kentucky. Patients may be diagnosed with a wide range of psychiatric-mental health conditions, including but not limited to anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders and thought disorders.

Our staff promotes patients' recovery, wellness and transition back into the community. Individuals are evaluated in our admissions department, and those who meet the legal criteria for hospitalization are admitted.

Central Kentucky Recovery Center

Located on the ESH campus, Central Kentucky Recovery Center (CKRC) is a personal-care home with 17 beds for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The home offers less restrictive care that promotes residents’ return to a community setting.

Recovery-based programming

Recovery Mall

At ESH, programs and classes are offered on the units as well as in our Recovery Mall, located on both the first and second floors of the hospital. The Recovery Mall is the hospital’s recovery and rehabilitation program. It’s an exciting, cheerful area designed to help people change, grow and recover from the effects of mental illness and substance use disorder. We also offer both music and art therapies that use hands-on experiences and therapist interaction to improve mental, social, emotional and spiritual wellness.

On-unit groups

At ESH and CKRC, interdisciplinary on-unit groups are provided multiple times per day, six to seven days per week. 

EmPATH Unit

The Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing (EmPATH) unit at UK HealthCare, located on the campus of Eastern State Hospital, provides immediate care for adults experiencing an acute mental health crisis. The unit offers a calming, therapeutic environment designed for rapid evaluation, stabilization, and treatment, typically within a 23-hour period. This specialized approach reduces emergency department congestion, decreases unnecessary inpatient admissions, and improves patient outcomes by promoting swift, effective crisis intervention and coordinated follow-up care.