New resource available to southern Utah families facing mental and behavioral health concerns.
(PRUnderground) August 13th, 2025
The new Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital Day Treatment Center is opening its doors to address a critical need in pediatric behavioral health care, thanks to the generosity of the community.
The center started providing care to children in the Adolescent Behavioral Health Partial Hospitalization Program on January 28.
The program offers intensive behavioral health care and skill building to kids five days a week, for the length of a typical school day. At the end of each day, participants go home to practice the new skills they’ve learned with their family. Children are in the program between 10 and 14 days, depending on individual needs.
“This level of care addresses what once was a mental health care gap, and fills it with hope for kids and families in the St. George area,” said Chase Knaphus, pediatric behavioral health director of intensive and outpatient services for Intermountain Children’s Health. “Thanks to community generosity, Southern Utah has a new way to help children thrive.”
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The Partial Hospitalization Program is made possible by generous community donations at 2022 Jubilee of Trees, which raised $1.2 million to support much-needed pediatric and adolescent mental and behavioral health services at Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital. The annual event, hosted by the Intermountain Foundation at St. George Regional Hospital, has raised funds to advance community medical services at the hospital since 1983.
The Partial Hospitalization Program is, in terms of intensity, middle ground in the spectrum of pediatric behavioral health services. It is more intensive than an hourlong outpatient visit with a therapist, and yet not as intense as mental health crisis hospitalization services.
In the Partial Hospitalization Program, participants receive care from an Intermountain Children’s Health multi-disciplinary team, including mental health therapists, doctors, nurses, and expressive therapy teams. Participants receive care and learn new skills, and their families learn ways to support their wellbeing.
At the end of each day in the program, participants return to their families to practice their new skills.
“When kids have the opportunity to apply their new skills at home with their families, they have a much greater likelihood of success following treatment,” Knaphus said.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for Utah youth ages 10 to 17. It’s estimated that 40 percent of children who have depression are not getting care. Last year, 43 percent of Utah youth who felt sad, hopeless, or suicidal reported that they did not talk to anyone about it.
Enhancing behavioral health services for children is part of Intermountain Health’s Primary Promise to create a model health system for children.
Intermountain Health Partial Hospitalization Programs are located in Ogden through McKay-Dee Hospital, and at Primary Children’s Hospital’s Wasatch Canyons Campus in Taylorsville and the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Campus in Lehi.
For more behavioral health information, visit:
- intermountainhealthcare.org/childrens-health
- or call the Assessment, Referral, and Consultation Services line at (801) 313-7711 if your child needs assistance.
About Intermountain Health
Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, over 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://news.intermountainhealth.org/.
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