Atrium Health Announces Historic $340 Million Investment to Transform Behavioral Healthcare in the Region

New behavioral health hospital location, expanded emergency services, additional inpatient and outpatient capacity and community-based programs will create one of the region’s most comprehensive behavioral health networks

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 15, 2026 – Atrium Health announced a transformational $340 million, five-year commitment to expand behavioral healthcare, including plans for a new behavioral health hospital location in north Charlotte, marking one of the largest investments in behavioral health services in the region’s history. As behavioral health needs continue to rise across the country and demand in North Carolina similarly continues to grow, the investment is designed to increase capacity, improve access to care and support long-term workforce development.

“Behavioral health is one of the greatest unmet needs in healthcare today, and it touches nearly every family and community,” said Eugene A. Woods, chief executive officer of Advocate Health, of which Atrium Health is a part. “This $340 million investment reflects our conviction that mental health deserves the same level of care, expertise and focus as any other aspect of healthcare.”

A Transformational Investment

The $340 million commitment will address a critical need by vastly expanding behavioral health services across the region, supporting patients beyond the Greater Charlotte area, from York County, South Carolina, all the way up to North Carolina’s Triad Region. At the center of the effort is a new dedicated behavioral health hospital location that Atrium Health will create by renovating an existing building in the University City area near Mallard Creek. Once complete, the hospital location will include 168 inpatient beds for pediatric and adult patients, creating a net gain of 102 beds for the community.

The new hospital location and programs will offer inpatient care and specialized treatment options, including procedural and device-based therapies for adults whose mental health conditions have not responded to traditional medications or therapies. Outpatient services will include therapy, medication management and intensive treatment programs for patients of all ages. The investment also includes a new behavioral health emergency department and an expanded crisis stabilization unit, providing short-term inpatient care for individuals experiencing an acute mental health or substance use crisis.

By renovating an existing building rather than constructing a new facility from the ground up, Atrium Health expects to bring these critical services online in 2028, 12 to 18 months sooner than otherwise possible, helping address urgent behavioral health needs across the region more quickly. Existing inpatient services remain at Atrium Health Behavioral Health Davidson, while Atrium Health Behavioral Health Charlotte will continue to serve as an important access point for outpatient and crisis care.

A Longstanding Commitment, A Growing Need

As the Charlotte region’s behavioral health safety-net provider for nearly 40 years, Atrium Health has worked with community providers and philanthropy leaders to expand services and improve access to care. Yet the need continues to grow. Over just the past six years, Atrium Health’s behavioral health-related emergency department visits have increased 13%, with adolescents accounting for 17% of visits during this timeframe. Last year, pediatric patients made up 26% of behavioral health-related emergency department visits. And in 2025, the health system saw nearly 2,000 pediatric patients for inpatient care and served nearly 20,000 pediatric patients for outpatient care, further emphasizing the growing need for available behavioral health resources.

Once complete, the new behavioral health hospital location will enable Atrium Health to provide an additional 35,000 inpatient days of care annually, helping ensure more patients can access treatment when they need it most. The investment will also increase the capacity of outpatient clinics to provide more than an additional 19,500 visits annually, expanding access to behavioral health services across the region and reducing wait times for non-emergent appointments.

“As we continue serving as Mecklenburg County’s behavioral health safety net, we remain focused on finding innovative ways to reach more people, remove barriers to care and strengthen the systems of support that help communities thrive,” said Lisa McCanna, vice president of the behavioral health service line at Atrium Health. “Every person we reach matters, and we are committed to helping people access and receive the right care, in the right setting, at the right time.”

A Full Continuum of Care

The investment extends beyond a single facility to include expanded urgent and crisis care services, workforce development initiatives and community outreach programs such as Wellness Without Walls, a street psychiatry program designed to increase access to behavioral healthcare. The investment also builds on Atrium Health’s current virtual care offerings, including school-based therapy services that reach nearly 250 North Carolina schools and have delivered more than 50,000 therapy visits to students since 2021, helping connect children and families with care earlier.

In addition, Atrium Health continues investing in building a stronger behavioral health workforce by expanding clinical training programs, including its psychiatry residency program, adolescent psychiatry fellowship opportunities and a planned addiction fellowship to help prepare the next generation of behavioral health specialists.

This $340 million commitment builds on Atrium Health’s long history of investing to meet the region’s growing healthcare needs. Between 2021 and 2025, Atrium Health invested $6.6 billion in major projects, including new towers at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the development of The Pearl innovation district, and a new hospital in Lake Norman. Advocate Health plans to invest over $10 billion over the next five years, with plans for North Carolina projects ranging from a new hospital in Greensboro to an expansion of Atrium Health Union West and beyond.

“This is about far more than a building. It is about creating more pathways to care and giving hope to individuals and families during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” added Woods. “It’s a place where healing can begin, recovery is possible, and people can find a brighter path forward.”

Meaningful Support from Community Leaders

Atrium Health’s behavioral health programs have a long history of philanthropic support from members of the community. For more than a decade, The Leon Levine Foundation, Sandra Levine and the Levine family have helped bring essential behavioral healthcare to the community, including supporting the development of Atrium Health Behavioral Health Davidson and the organization’s psychiatry residency and fellowship programs. Additionally, knowing that it takes significant community support to have a long-term impact on this issue, Linda and Rick Hendrick and their daughter and son-in-law, Lynn and Marshall Carlson, have made a generous leadership gift to help open the new facility and expand behavioral health programs across the region.

At the announcement of the investment, several leaders shared their thoughts on this historic news:

“This is a bold step forward for Atrium Health to improve access to mental healthcare in North Carolina,” said North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. “Too often, people who need urgent mental healthcare languish in emergency departments while waiting for the appropriate help. This hospital will offer some of the most effective and innovative treatments to address a growing need for advanced mental health services for children and adults. We are grateful for partners like Atrium Health as we work to build a mental healthcare system that improves the health, safety and well-being of all North Carolinians.”

“Behavioral health is health, and when someone needs help, they deserve to get it quickly, close to home, and with dignity,” said Rob Harrington, mayor of Charlotte. “This new facility and new services will expand access to care for families across Charlotte and supports our commitment to public safety by increasing access to behavioral healthcare and services. Public safety is about prevention as much as enforcement, and this commitment helps make sure people have somewhere to turn before a crisis happens.”

“Having served on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority Board since 2010 and as Board of Commissioners Chair since 2021, I have had a front-row seat to Atrium Health’s longstanding commitment to reimagining how care is delivered and expanding access to the communities we serve,” said Angelique R. Vincent, chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority Board of Commissioners. “From meeting patients where they are during times of crisis to advancing new models of care, Atrium Health has remained dedicated to serving those who need us most. This investment represents the next chapter in that commitment to ensure those in our community in need of behavioral healthcare can receive compassionate care when and where they need it.”

“For over four decades, Atrium Health has been a valued community partner, especially when it comes to improving the quality of life for our most vulnerable populations,” said Mark D. Jerrell, chair of Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. “With today’s announcement, Atrium is reaffirming its standing commitment to our community and residents. This venture could not have come at a more opportune time given the growing need for behavioral health services for both our pediatric and adult populations.”

Editor’s note: Pictures from the event and renderings of the new behavioral health hospital location can be downloaded here.

 

About Atrium Health 

Atrium Health is advancing clinical care and research across the communities it serves by redefining care for all. Locations include Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, which includes Levine Children’s Hospital, Levine Cancer Institute and Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute; and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, which includes Brenner Children’s Hospital and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. Together, these academic medical centers support a statewide network of 19 hospitals, more than 1,060 care locations serving communities across North Carolina. Atrium Health is also the only health system in North Carolina to receive the American Medical Association’s Joy in Medicine™ Gold Level Recognition, reflecting its commitment to supporting clinicians and advancing exceptional patient care. It is part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States. Advocate Health is a preeminent academic health system at the forefront of clinical excellence, innovation and research, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as its academic core. Nationally recognized for expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, Advocate Health is also a pioneer in the delivery of virtual healthcare. It’s accelerating discovery by making research participation part of the standard-of-care through its one-of-a-kind National Center for Clinical Trials. Advocate Health has one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs, with an experiential learning focus and specialized residencies to help protect the long-term sustainability of rural healthcare in America. Each campus of the school of medicine has an affiliated life-sciences focused innovation district: The Pearl, in Charlotte, and Innovation Quarter, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With more than 165,000 teammates serving patients at 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations across eight states, Advocate Health reinvests over $6 billion each year to improve community health, making it one of the nation’s largest providers of community benefit. In North Carolina, Atrium Health invested $2.38 billion in community benefit in 2025 and is the largest provider of care for Medicaid, uninsured and underserved patients.