Strategic Behavioral Health: Building in North Brunswick County

By Brant Wilkerson-New

It didn’t take much strategy for Jim Shaheen to find a good location for his company’s newest behavioral health facility. In fact, it was quite obvious that Wilmington and North Brunswick County were in great need of the service.

“When we looked at the region, we saw that there were none of these services being provided to adolescents,” says Shaheen, CEO of Strategic Behavioral Health, a Memphis, Tennessee–based company that plans to build and acquire behavioral health facilities throughout the country. “Residents have to go to Raleigh, Charlotte, Jacksonville and, in some cases, down to Atlanta.”

Shaheen says Strategic Behavioral Health instantly saw that they could fill in the gap in adolescent behavioral services in the southeastern part of North Carolina. Shaheen has more than 19 years of experience in the behavioral health field, previously serving as CEO of Compass Intervention Center in Memphis and CEO of Coastal Harbor Treatment Center in Savannah, Georgia.

The company began construction on Strategic Behavioral Health in the Leland Industrial Park in late August. Shaheen expects the facility to open to the public in July or August of 2008 and to be fully staffed and operational within 15 months from the opening of the facility.

The facility will serve adolescents dealing with disorders from schizophrenia to substance abuse. It is designed to house 72 patients, with the benefit that they will get to remain closer to home and near their families while they receive treatment.

For Shaheen, that’s the most positive reason for having local facilities.

“Our focus is on reintegrating kids back into their home environments and allowing their parents to participate in treatment with them,” Shaheen says. “What we know about the treatment is that when parents and families are involved, we have a 50 percent greater chance of success.”

Shaheen says that the majority of the patients at Strategic Behavioral Health will come from the region, which he defines as about ten counties in the immediate area.

With family members nearby, patients can be joined by their relatives for multi-family group sessions and family therapy. The facility also will provide its patients with recreational therapy, vocational training and in-house educational services.

Other than the proximity to home, Shaheen says that patients will benefit from the design features of the facility itself. He noted that the state-of-the-art building will feature the most up-to-date technology available.

The patients won’t be the only beneficiaries of the new facility — the local economy will get a strong boost as well. Strategic will employ about 225 people, drawing a large number of those from within the area.

The company has yet to begin interviews for employment but plans to start meeting with applicants in March.

“My staff will come from right there in Leland and Wilmington,” Shaheen says. “We needed to locate in a population demographic that was large enough to pull physicians, nurses and staff, and Leland can capture that staff within a radius of 20 to 25 miles.”

With business growing at a rapid rate in the Leland area, Shaheen says that the town leaders assisted in every way possible to make the facility a reality.

“The Brunswick Economic Development Board and its members really welcomed us and provided great assistance and insight as to where we could locate and the benefits of being in Leland and Brunswick County,” Shaheen says of why the Leland area made for such an attractive location.

Brunswick County also has a little bit to offer on the pleasure side, too. Shaheen says he has not had trouble convincing his staff or the CEO of the new facility, Jay Coughenour, to relocate to the Leland area. Coughenour and his family will be moving to the Leland area at the beginning of January.

“We think that the region has a great lifestyle to offer for our staff,” says Shaheen. “And there is such a great need for the service, so the two matched up nicely.”

Learn more about Strategic Behavioral Health at www.strategicbh.com.