(From the Helena Independent Record)
“About 50 people gathered Thursday for a groundbreaking ceremony at a local nonprofit treatment center for children with severe emotional distress.
Community leaders, project contributors, staff and administrators gathered to break ground on two new cottages at Intermountain, a 32-bed children’s mental health facility founded in 1909 by Rev. William Van Orsdel as a boarding school.
The two cottages are being constructed at the southern end of Intermountain’s residential campus, which is located at 500 S. Lamborn St. The two new cottages, which come with a $2.5 million price tag, will not add to Intermountain’s inpatient capacity because two current housing facilities will be repurposed as a chapel and family life center for visitors and family members of the patients, said Glenna Wortman-Obie, Intermountain’s marketing director.
The project, which is expected to be completed next spring, will bring much needed renovations to Intermountain’s nearly 40-year-old campus, she said.
The changes to Intermountain’s campus will give the center a more welcoming atmosphere — something that is missing in many mental facilities, said Elizabeth Kohlstaedt, the chief clinical officer at Intermountain.”
Continue reading on the Independent Record’s website…