The Pavilion Behavioral Health System includes a 77 bed inpatient hospital, a residential treatment center for you and a residential addictions treatment program.  Outpatient services include partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient services as well as The Pavilion Foundation School, a private day school serving students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders.

What later became the Pavilion Behavioral Health Center was founded as the Carle Pavilion in 1988.  Located in the former Cole Hospital Building, the Carle Pavilion provided psychiatric and substance abuse treatment to its patients. The center was initially licensed for 46 beds and operated with a staff of 75 employees (Pressey, 1994, p. A-1). In 1995, the Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services, Inc., purchased The Pavilion health center from the Carle Foundation. Universal Health Services operates health centers nationwide and is one of the three largest healthcare providers in the United States. Despite the change in ownership, the health center’s operation was largely unaffected. Carle maintained a close working relationship with the center, contracting its clinical psychiatrists out from the Carle Clinic (Pressey, 1994, p. A-1; Bauer, 2001, p. B-1). The change in ownership did allow The Pavilion to expand.

Shortly after the transfer, The Pavilion introduced new services to reach a broader patient audience.  In 1997, The Pavilion added a residential treatment program designed for young adults. The same year, it opened the Pavilion Foundation School, located across the street from the health center. The school accommodated 40 students in 4 classrooms. The school targeted students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems (Merli, 2001, p. D-1). As a public corporation, The Pavilion marketed its services beyond the Champaign-Urbana area, and as a result children from as far away as Rantoul, Thomasboro, Bloomington, Mahomet, Tolono, Danville, and Blue Ridge came for treatment at The Pavilion (Bauer, 2001, p. B-1). Rising numbers of patients seeking treatment prompted the Pavilion school to enlarge its operation.

In August of 2002, The Pavilion expanded again, as the school completed a construction project to improve its facilities. The project more than doubled the school’s capacity, increasing the number of classrooms to 10 and increasing the student body to over 100 (Merli, 2001, p. D-1).

The Pavilion continues to fill a critical need in the community. In 2000, the hospital cared for 64 children with chemical dependency issues and 45 children received partial hospitalization (Merli, 2001, p. D-1).  The Pavilion Behavioral Health Center currently has 77 beds for inpatient use while providing numerous outpatient services (Pavilion Behavioral Health Center). The Pavilion’s staff has increased to over 160 and the center has not finished growing.

At present, the facility is constructing a new wing on the site of the former Harris mansion.  The Harris mansion was built in 1904 by B. F. Harris, founder of the First National Bank and the Urbana and Champaign Railway. Later used by the Cole Hospital in 1957, the mansion has proved less useful for The Pavilion’s purposes. In 2011, Jeremy Pitzer, then clinical director of The Pavilion, reported that the mansion was in terrible condition. Furthermore, Pitzer stated that its facilities were underutilized with only a “few scattered offices” in use (Wade, News-Gazette, 2010).  Some Champaign residents expressed concerns about demolishing a historic structure while others feared the facility might lower property values (Wade, News-Gazette, 2010). These concerns notwithstanding, The Pavilion has received approval from the City of Champaign and plans to finish the project by fall 2012 if they receive approval from the State of Illinois as well (J. Sheehy, personal communication, November 21, 2011).

This CU wiki entry began as a UIUC research project.  For more on that see Study of UC2B Anchor Institutions' Technology Use