CHOC Children’s Receives $500,000 Grant For Mental Health Initiative

(ORANGE, Calif., Jan. 22, 2016) – CHOC Children’s has received the first installment of a $500,000 capital grant in support of its mental health initiative from the Pacific Life Foundation.

In honor of the gift, a cluster of six private patient rooms in the CHOC Children’s Mental Health Inpatient Center will be named after the Pacific Life Foundation, the charitable arm of Newport Beach-based insurance company Pacific Life.

“We are so grateful for the Pacific Life Foundation’s generous support,” said Jan Lansing, interim vice president of the CHOC Children’s Foundation. “The grant will go a long way toward helping us create a safe, nurturing environment for children and families fighting mental illness.”

“CHOC Children’s Hospital and the Pacific Life Foundation are longtime partners and it is an honor to provide CHOC with a substantial grant to support their efforts to care for those young patients and their families in Orange County struggling with mental illness,” said Tennyson Oyler, president of the Pacific Life Foundation.

The Center is the cornerstone of a transformational mental health initiative announced by CHOC and community leaders in May 2015. The ambitious initiative will ensure children, adolescents and young adults with mental illness get the health care services and support they currently lack in Orange County’s fragmented system of care.

The Center is specially designed for children ages 3 to 18 to receive care for mental health conditions. It will also provide specialty programming for children younger than 12.

Work is underway to extensively remodel the third floor of CHOC’s Research Building, located on the west side of the hospital’s main campus, to house 18 beds in a secure, healing environment, as well as an outdoor area for recreation. The Center is expected to open in early 2018.

To learn more about CHOC’s mental health initiative, visit www.choc.org/mentalhealthgiving.