GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Pine Rest is merging with a organization looking to better meet the need for children’s behavioral health care in West Michigan.

The nonprofit says the demand for care and evaluations is growing for children and the merger will help strengthen the services available.

“For the past several years, we’ve been wrestling with the shortage of child adolescent services in West Michigan. It takes about twice as long to get in to see a child specialist as it does an adult,” said Scott Halstead, VP of Outpatient Services with Pine Rest.

Halstead says merging with an organization called BRAINS, which stands for Behavioral Resources And Institute for Neuropsychological Services, will help better meet the need, especially with its applied behavioral analysis program.

“We’ve been doing that work which is having specialists go in and look for … what kind of behaviors, or what kind of environment triggers might drive behaviors in kids on the autism spectrum, just as an example.”

Pine Rest is building a new pediatric center that is scheduled to open in March on its campus in Cutlerville and says the merger will allow service at additional locations.

“Patients and families are gonna need outpatient practices in their neighborhood,” Halstead said.

BRAINS will keep operating from its building in Grand Rapids Township but will officially be part of Pine Rest on Oct. 27.

Halstead says demand for assessments is high across the country.

“You might wait six months, you might wait to get that service and so bringing more specialists into the Pine Rest system to do that work is just gonna bring those wait times down,” Halstead said.

Finding specialists with this expertise to hire can be difficult with the training and skills needed.

“They have also been involved in training and supervision of sort of new career clinicians just like we have done and we’re gonna continue to do that with the BRAINS team to try to train more people in this field because that is part of the problem,” Halstead said.   

Pine Rest says it can also provide additional technology and resources to BRAINS because of its size.