Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness ribbon cutting set for 6/5/2023.

North Charleston, SC –Trident Medical Center will hold a ribbon cutting for its new freestanding mental health hospital, Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness, Monday, June 5, 2023, 10:30 am –11:30 am. The 60-bed, $47.5M mental health hospital will be the first in South Carolina in more than 30 years. The freestanding hospital will provide inpatient and outpatient services to adolescents (ages 12 –17) and adults. Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness is located at 3445 Ingleside Blvd., Ladson, SC 29456, which is about 1.5 miles from Trident Medical Center. Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness will open for patient care Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

David Was, Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness Chief Operating Office says, “The new hospital was designed around best practices that promote the privacy, dignity and safety of our patients, staff and guests. Since the last freestanding behavioral health hospital was built in South Carolina more than 30 years ago, so much has changed in terms of how we treat patients and how we create environments in which they heal. For example, the new facility will include large outdoor courtyards that create many therapeutic benefits for patients in individual and group settings.”

Trident Health President and CEO Christina Oh added, “Our promise to Lowcountry families is we will continue our commitment to focusing on our patients’ mental wellness. Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness represents returning whole and productive people back to the community.”

In Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester Counties, nearly five percent of all admissions among all of the hospitals in the tri-county area are mental health related. The need for more mental health resources is critical, especially for adolescents.

Live Oak Mental Health & Wellness Associate Chief Nursing Officer Andretta Randall explained, “Families can expect their adolescent child will receive care from staff who specialize in adolescent mental health care and who will design appropriate individualized plans of care for their adolescent patients.”

In 2014 Trident Medical Center opened a 17-bed behavioral health unit in the hospital. It is currently a 25-bed unit within Trident Medical Center. The unit was a turning point in the hospital’s commitment to providing high quality behavioral health services, but the demand has always been greater than the region’s ability to meet them. Since the unit opened beds are rarely available.

“If you look at the Lowcountry’s health profile,” said psychiatrist Dr. Harish Mangipudi, “meeting our families’ behavioral health needs is as important as meeting their needs for high quality cardiac or stroke care. Until you have a family member who can benefit from behavioral health services most families don’t realize the importance of having greater access to care.”