Akron Children’s Hospital

In the mid-2000s, emergency departments were built for broken bones and fevers, not the emotional weight of pediatric self-harm and severe depression. Children in a behavioral health crisis arrived and were too often sent home with little specialized support. Drs. Steve Cosby and Georgette Constantinou came to Peg’s with a proposal: build a Psychiatric Intake Response Center (PIRC) inside the ER.

In 2006–2007, Peg’s provided the seed funding to launch PIRC. What began as limited psychiatric hours has grown into a 24/7 continuum of pediatric behavioral health care — with a dedicated behavioral health wing, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient programs, and regional access points. Akron Children’s is now a national model, replicated in states including Texas and Alabama.

The people behind the work are not abstract. Rick Kellar’s daughter Emma broke her arm on Halloween as a child and left Akron Children’s with a purple cast. Years later, she returned after self-harm — this time greeted by PIRC. She progressed through the continuum and is now thriving as a new mother.