Shodair Children’s Hospital

Address: 2755 Colonial Drive, PO Box 5539
Helena, MT 59604 Phone: (406) 444-7500 Fax: (406) 4441022 Website: https://shodair.org/

Shodair began as a home for orphaned and abandoned children in 1896. As Shodair evolved to meet the needs of Montana’s children, it became the first facility in the state to treat children with polio, the first facility with a department of medical genetics, and the first with a chemical dependency unit dedicated to adolescents. For more than 115 years, Shodair has stayed in step with the ever-changing needs of Montana’s children. Shodair’s medical specialists develop programs that meet our mission of providing for the care and treatment of children suffering from illness, diseases, and other physical, mental, and emotional conditions that impair their health and well-being. Acute Inpatient Program – Shodair Children’s Hospital is the only facility in the state of Montana to offer both acute and residential treatment services for children and adolescents. The Acute Care Unit accommodates up to 20 children from ages 3 to 18. The Acute Psychiatric Inpatient program was designated in 2008 as a model program for Collaborative Problem Solving. The program offers intensive services for emotionally and behaviorally impaired children and their families who are in crisis. At Shodair, children and families interact with a team of specialists, including nurses, doctors, therapists, and teachers. Residential Treatment Program – Shodair Children’s Hospital provides three developmentally specific residential treatment programs for children of all ages. Each program provides a safe, therapeutic, and nurturing environment to promote positive change. The children’s residential program is a Model Program for Collaborative Problem Solving** and provides developmentally appropriate residential psychiatric care for up to 20 children (ages 4 to 9); the 20 bed middle school residential program provides psychiatric treatment for middle school-aged youth (ages 10 to 13); the adolescent unit (ages 14 to 18) has a capacity to provide care for up to 24 adolescents. Genetic Services – The mission of Shodair Children’s Hospital’s Department of Medical Genetics is to provide excellence in meeting genetic needs of Montanans through testing, counseling, and support for families, outreach, scholarship, and education. This program is medically oriented and offers a broad range of services to individuals and families with birth defects, genetic and hereditary conditions with or without mental retardation. Our genetic services include patient evaluations, genetic counseling, and education. Service may be for diagnosis, prognosis, natural history, recurrence risk information, psychological support, prenatal diagnosis, fetal death evaluation, molecular genetic and other special testing or for a variety of other reasons. An important part of the service mandate is to educate lay and professional Montanans about genetics and genetic conditions so they are aware of what services may benefit them.