DMH Breaks Ground on the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute Relocation Project
by Melanie Ferretti, Office of the State Director
November 7, 2014, the South Carolina Mental Health Commission, DMH State Director John H. Magill, and key agency staff donned hard hats and wielded golden shovels at the ground-breaking ceremony of the future location of the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute.
Currently located on the campus of the former South Carolina State Hospital, the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, the Department’s psychiatric hospital dedicated to the treatment of children and adolescents, will be relocated to the campus of the agency’s G. Werber Bryan Psychiatric Hospital. The William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute at Bryan Psychiatric Hospital will continue to be the primary child and adolescent hospital with the DMH system. The Hall Institute identity will be preserved, and the child and adolescent services will become a distinct area of BPH. Construction will create an additional parking lot, a separate admissions building, a separate entrance road and make renovations to Lodges C and D of BPH, which are currently unoccupied. The relocation will increase child and adolescent hospital bed capacity, as well as improve administrative efficiency.
“This is a wonderful moment. Hall Institute has been one of the Commission’s top concerns for the past ten years. We are excited to finally be breaking ground. We considered so many different options knowing we are fully committed to taking care of the children. We just had to figure out the best plan to do that,” said Commission Chair Alison Evans, PsyD.
“I think combining the agency’s two Columbia psychiatric hospitals on one campus is the smart decision,” said State Mental Health Director John H. Magill. “The co-location will improve the Department’s capacity to provide quality hospital services for children and adolescents, while making the best use of our limited resources.” Completion of the project is scheduled for August 2015.
Photo by Tracy LaPointe. L-R: Doug Glover, Jim Berry, Stuart Shields, Dr. Angela Forand, Deputy Director Versie Bellamy, Commission Vice-Chair Joan Moore, Commission Chair Alison Evans, PsyD., State Director John H. Magill, Commissioners Everard Rutledge, Ph.D., J. “Buck” Terry, Sharon Wilson, Beverly Cardwell, and Deputy Director Mark Binkley