Although approximately 60 million Americans are experiencing behavioral health issues, the gap between need for behavioral health services and available treatment remains substantial.

To address this treatment gap, Acadia Healthcare has developed a collaborative model built on partnerships with established healthcare systems across the country. These partnerships aim to expand access to specialized behavioral healthcare while maintaining clinical quality standards.

Joint Venture Model

Acadia Healthcare maintains equity partnerships with 21 healthcare systems that operate 22 behavioral health hospitals nationwide.

Recent examples of Acadia's affiliated network include partnerships with Intermountain Health in Westminster, Colorado, and Henry Ford Health in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The Intermountain Health partnership created West Pines Behavioral Health, a 144-bed facility, while the Henry Ford Health joint venture established a 192-bed hospital that became operational in early 2025. During the first quarter of 2025 alone, Acadia's affiliated network added 378 new beds through both joint ventures and expansion of existing facilities.

Acadia's affiliated network now includes 260 facilities nationwide and added seven new comprehensive treatment centers during the first quarter of 2025, extending the company's market reach to 170 locations across over 30 states. Additional recent openings include a de novo facility in Northport, Florida, which began operations in the first quarter of 2025.

These joint ventures can help medical health systems meet population needs that their existing infrastructure often cannot address. For patients needing specialized mental health treatment, such as children and adolescents with complex conditions, the partnerships can create dedicated spaces that free capacity for medical patients in general hospitals.

Breaking Barriers to Behavioral Care

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing has highlighted significant barriers to behavioral health treatment. In a recent survey, they found that people who need mental health and substance use treatment face numerous obstacles, with cost-related issues, inability to find conveniently located providers, and difficulty getting immediate appointments cited as primary barriers.

A study by the American Psychological Association found that 90% of the public believes there is a mental health crisis in the United States today. When Americans who felt they needed mental health services were asked about specific barriers to accessing care, 80% cited cost and more than 60% cited shame and stigma as the main obstacles. At the same time, 60% of psychologists surveyed reported no openings for patients.

The partnership model that Acadia Healthcare has developed is aimed at addressing these structural barriers through collaborative approaches. Through combining the specialized behavioral health expertise of Acadia Healthcare with the established community presence and broader healthcare capabilities of its network affiliates, these partnerships can create more integrated care pathways.

A 2024 American Health Law Association review of behavioral health mergers and acquisitions found that joint venture partnerships have become increasingly important in the mental health sector because they help traditional nonprofit health systems operate more efficiently while meeting the high demand for behavioral health services.

The clinical advantages of these partnerships extend beyond increasing access. A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that integrating behavioral health providers into broader healthcare teams "can enhance provider responsiveness to patients with complex clinical presentations and improve patient/family outcomes and satisfaction." This integration can create opportunities for interdisciplinary cross-training, with behavioral health specialists sharing knowledge with primary care colleagues about early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health concerns.

This knowledge sharing can improve treatment approaches for patients with complex needs who might otherwise cycle through emergency departments without receiving appropriate mental healthcare.

Serving Areas in Need

According to a 2022 report from ABC News analyzing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, "75% of rural counties across the country have no mental health providers or fewer than 50 per 100,000 people" and there are "570 counties in the United States [that] have no providers"."

The Research and Action Institute found that "among nonmetropolitan counties, 65% had no practicing psychiatrist as compared with 27% of metropolitan counties."

Acadia Healthcare's joint venture with East Carolina University to build a 144-bed behavioral health hospital in Greenville, North Carolina exemplifies how these partnerships can address regional gaps in care. North Carolina, like many states with large rural populations, has struggled with behavioral health access issues. North Carolina ranked 34th out of all states for adults with a mental illness who did not receive treatment (56.5%), according to Mental Health America.

By collaborating with an established healthcare system that already serves the community, Acadia's affiliated network can introduce specialized behavioral healthcare and increase the availability of care options.

Technology integration is another significant benefit of these partnerships. While behavioral healthcare has historically lagged in technology adoption compared to other medical specialties, joint ventures can enable faster implementation of electronic medical records and other digital health tools.

As Acadia's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stephanie Eken and Chief Quality Officer Dr. Navdeep Kang noted in a recent article, "The explicit exclusion of behavioral health facilities from the HITECH Act prevented incentives to adopt electronic medical records... and other technology advancements at inpatient psychiatric facilities."

But through partnerships with hospital systems that already have advanced EMR capabilities, Acadia Healthcare and its network of affiliates can accelerate technology adoption in behavioral health settings. This can improve clinical documentation and care coordination and can enable better measurement of outcomes — a critical factor in demonstrating the value of behavioral health interventions to payers and policy makers.

Broader Impacts

The impact of these partnerships extends beyond the participating organizations to benefit entire healthcare systems. Untreated mental health and substance use disorders can have significant downstream impacts on the healthcare system through increased emergency department utilization, higher rates of medical complications, and reduced workplace productivity. According to a 2019 Rand Corporation study evaluating the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration program, integrated care approaches that combine physical and behavioral healthcare can reduce total healthcare costs by 5% to 10% through earlier intervention and more appropriate treatment matching.

Acadia's network partnership model can help address workforce challenges plaguing behavioral healthcare. With shortages of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals nationwide, Acadia's joint ventures with healthcare systems can create more attractive practice environments that can help with recruitment and retention of specialized staff. These collaborative arrangements can enable shared staffing models, training opportunities, and career advancement pathways that might not be feasible in standalone facilities.

From a public health perspective, these partnerships can assist in normalizing mental healthcare as a fundamental component of overall health. By physically locating behavioral health facilities on or near general hospital campuses and integrating clinical protocols, these joint ventures can reduce stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment. This proximity can send a message that mental healthcare deserves the same attention and resources as other medical specialties.