For an active emergency, please go to your local emergency room or call 911. You can also call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. 

KVC Missouri’s sister organization, Camber Mental Health, provides inpatient pediatric mental health treatment for 1,000 Missouri youth each year. Camber is a nonprofit subsidiary of KVC Health Systems, just like KVC Missouri.

Camber provides acute hospital treatment for youth ages 6 to 18 who are struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, the impacts of trauma, and other mental health conditions. Their goal is to help each patient stabilize and return home as soon as safely possible, equipped with the skills, support and resources they need to continue treatment in their community. 

Expanding Access in the St. Louis Region

In the St. Louis region and across Missouri, there is an alarming children’s mental health crisis. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among Missouri’s young people ages 10 to 34, and Missouri ranks in the bottom 10 states nationally in access to mental health care, according to Mental Health America. 

While the need continues to grow, the number of beds is not keeping pace – with the St. Louis region lacking 150 inpatient pediatric beds for children and teens in mental health crisis. This results in delayed admissions, lengthy waitlists, and extensive travel times for desperate families and young people. 

To help meet this growing need, St. Louis Children’s and Camber Mental Health have joined together to open a new, state-of-the-art pediatric mental health hospital on the KVC Missouri Children’s Mental Wellness Campus in Webster Groves. Beginning in late 2026, inpatient care will be delivered by pediatric and adolescent behavioral health specialists from Camber with support from WashU Medicine. 

This hospital will expand access to high-quality inpatient mental health treatment and increase the region’s capacity to support children and adolescents experiencing urgent mental health needs. Families will have more opportunities to receive timely, compassionate care close to home. 

To follow our construction progress and learn more about all four levels of mental health treatment involved in this new venture, visit our Leading Change page. 

How We Help Children and Families

At our children’s mental health hospitals, we provide a patient-centered approach to treatment, which supports and encourages family involvement. We believe parents/guardians are significant partners in the treatment process and can help us best support their child when they are involved in therapy and discharge planning. 

Inpatient Treatment Includes:

• Full medical, clinical and nursing assessment within the first 24 hours of admission
• Intensive psychiatric care and medication management
• Individual, family and group therapy sessions
• Case coordination
• 24/7 Support and supervision from our skilled nursing staff
• Innovative treatment and education to teach youth about their brains and how to regulate their emotions

Find a Camber location offering inpatient treatment near you.

What to Expect During Admission

When a client or family arrives for admission, a nurse or other healthcare professional will meet them in our lobby and escort them to one of our visiting rooms. In this room, Camber will: 

• Ask parents/guardians to complete the admission paperwork, providing consent and contact information
• Provide education about the treatment program and our highly trained staff
• Assign the client a bedroom
• Integrate the client into therapeutic activities as soon as possible

We know that sometimes it can be difficult for parents/guardians to be onsite with their child due to different life circumstances. When that is the case, as long as the parents/guardians send us the completed consent paperwork, we can complete the admission process over the phone. Click here for answers to frequently asked questions during the admission process. 

What to Expect at Discharge