Weitz Breaks Ground on Clive Behavioral Health in Iowa

With MercyOne Central Iowa and Universal Health Services, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 2 to celebrate the start of construction on a behavioral health facility in Clive, Iowa, that will be the first-of-its-kind in the state.

Clive Behavioral Health will be an 83,000-square-foot facility that will feature a single-story clinical and support services area and a 3-story, 100-bed wing for inpatient and outpatient services.

Each patient area will include six units flanked by nurse work stations that provide medical staff direct access and visibility to all three primary therapy spaces – one for noisy activities such as games and watching TV, another for quiet activities such as reading and meditation and the third for group therapy sessions led by staff. Additional interior spaces will include consult rooms, medication dispensary areas, staff offices, a laundry room and nourishment areas while patients will also have access to outdoor courtyards with walking paths, an activity gymnasium and a dining room.

To support a full continuum of patients from children to adolescents to adults, the Clive Behavior Health facility will also have multiple spaces to aid the assessment, counseling and treatment of the most prevalent behavioral health concerns, including depression, anxiety disorders and substance use issues.

Attended by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, the groundbreaking event also helped raise awareness to the growing need for facilities that treat behavioral health issues in Iowa and across the United States.

“MercyOne and UHS estimate 600,000 Iowans live with some form of mental illness, so we recognize how important this new behavioral health facility will be in the state and appreciate the confidence shown in Weitz to be their construction partner,” said The Weitz Company Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Tousley.

The construction of Clive Behavioral Health is expected to be completed in the summer of 2020. The project is being designed by Johnson Johnson Crabtree Architects out of Nashville, Tenn.