BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — A residential treatment facility is reopening in Cabell County to help children in state custody.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey joined local and state officials on Thursday afternoon to announce the return of the Barboursville School, a psychiatric treatment facility for children dealing with severe mental health challenges that closed last year.
The governor said the state has entered into a five-year lease agreement with Youth Health Associates for the property. It will open in early 2027 and help juveniles with mental and physical challenges, along with those who have committed sexual misconduct.
Morrisey said this is part of his administration’s efforts to bring West Virginia’s children back home.
“For far too long, our kids were sent sometimes hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away, because we didn’t have the facilities or the resources here in West Virginia to provide the care that they needed,” Morrisey said. “Earlier this year, I introduced our Bring Them Home initiative because I knew we had to change that.”
The governor said there’s been a great deal with help from the legislature with those efforts. Morrisey pointed to Youth Health Associates as the perfect, “experienced” partner to bring the facility back into operation.
Morrisey said the facility will children who have dealt with many challenges, giving them the care that they need.
“Many of the children in state custody have experienced very difficult circumstances in their lives,” Morrisey said. “Obviously, that’s what’s caused some of them to be shipped far away from the communities and the families that love them. Unfortunately, a lot of times families can’t visit those kids, especially when they’re out of state.”
Reopening the facility is an important step for the state, Morrisey said.
“We know that the school here served children for nearly 40 years before closing,” Morrisey said. “Now, we have this facility, complete with some residential cottages, and we’re beginning the process of rebuilding.”
Morrisey noted that Youth Health Associates has already hired a director for the facility and recruiting efforts are already underway. Once its operational, he said, the facility will accommodate 36 kids and create between 50 and 60 jobs. The governor expects most of the 36 beds to be filled by March 2027.
Youth Health Associates Senior Director of Clinical Services Mace Warren said the organization is thrilled to be on board. He said they have a reach all across the country.
“We pride ourselves in working with the most difficult kids to place, really anywhere,” Warren said. “We work with 22 different states. West Virginia, I think we started our multi-year relationship with them on a referral for a client that had nowhere else to go. We did really excellent work for them, and it’s gotten to this point, too.”
Morrisey reported that, as of July 1, there were 5,719 kids in West Virginia foster care. He said that was the lowest July 1 number since 2016; as the tally had hovered around 6,000 foster care kids in recent years. He said this is one of many projects his administration is committed to supporting, all to lower the children-in-foster-care number.
Morrisey said there is a lot more work to do. He said he’s tasked staff to put together a list of additional facilities and provider agreements, all with the goal of expanding this initiative across all 55 counties. He said they’re working to cut back on overspending, which is what happens when kids are sent out of state.
“I believe that Barboursville will serve as a model for what we want to accomplish across West Virginia,” Morrisey said. “It’s my goal to replicate this approach across the state, slowly but surely, get to a point where we’re going to announce it soon, we can say, ‘forevermore in the future, kids will not be sent out of the state.'”