A $1 million gift from Ed and Chris Muransky will expand behavioral health care for children and teenagers across the Mahoning Valley, Akron Children’s announced on Monday, Nov. 9.
The donation supports the Mahoning Valley Behavioral Health Initiative, a five-year effort to improve access to mental health care, expand treatment programs and strengthen services for children and families across 10 Mahoning Valley locations and care settings, according to the Akron Children’s announcement.
The need behind the gift is measured in visits. Akron Children’s recorded more than 15,000 behavioral health outpatient visits in the Mahoning Valley last year, and depression contributed to more than 1,300 emergency department visits in the region, the hospital said in its announcement.
“We’ve always felt that behavioral health is an area of children’s healthcare that doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” Chris Muransky said in the Akron Children’s announcement. “If a child has cancer, everyone recognizes how devastating that is. But a child struggling with severe depression or contemplating suicide is just as much at risk.”
“There shouldn’t be a stigma or shame associated with that. These children need help just as much as children facing physical illnesses,” she added in the announcement. “When behavioral health needs go untreated in childhood, they can carry into adulthood and create even greater challenges.”
A central part of the Valley model is TABBICAT — Triage, Assessment, Brief Behavioral Interventions, Care Coordination, Tracking — an evidence-based approach that builds behavioral health into primary care, Akron Children’s said. Children identified with behavioral health concerns are connected to therapists and care coordinators embedded in the practice, who help families navigate treatment and reach the right level of care.
The results the hospital reports are stark. Successful referrals to behavioral health providers rose from 55.8 percent to 87.4 percent after the model was implemented, and today 85 percent of referred patients are seen within a couple of weeks, compared with just 10 percent before the model was introduced, according to Akron Children’s.
The gift will also keep funding behavioral health care coordinators across the Mahoning Valley and psychiatric consultation for primary care providers — services the hospital said are not fully covered by insurance — and it will support Sonar Mental Health, a 24/7 chat-based support platform that connects young people ages 13 and over with trained wellbeing coaches, Akron Children’s said.
Expanded treatment options for adolescents are part of the plan as well, including intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, according to the announcement.
“We hope this investment will help more children get the treatment they need, reach families who may not realize help is available and expand access for those who might not otherwise have the means to receive it,” Ed Muransky said in the announcement.
“This gift will help us transform behavioral healthcare delivery to children and adolescents in the Mahoning Valley,” Dr. Eva Szigethy, the Lois C. Orr Endowed Chair in Pediatric Psychiatry and director of Pediatric Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Akron Children’s, said in the announcement. “It allows us to study and track our efforts, address healthcare equity, and build programs in areas like trauma, autism, eating disorders and addictions.”
Shelly Brown, chief development officer and executive director of the Akron Children’s Foundation, said in the announcement that the Muranskys have long shown a deep commitment to the Mahoning Valley, and that their generosity will help ensure children facing behavioral health challenges can get “the right care, at the right time, close to home.”
Akron Children’s is an independent, nonprofit pediatric health system that has cared for children since 1890, with two hospitals, 46 pediatric offices, more than 50 primary and specialty locations and over 1,000 providers, according to the hospital. Its Mahoning Valley footprint is where this gift is aimed: the initiative’s five-year run is meant to improve access, expand innovative treatment programs and strengthen the network of services available to children and families, the announcement said.
The Valley’s community institutions have been in the spotlight this month for the same reason — local organizations doing sustained, unglamorous work for neighbors. NewsForce247 recently covered the seven winners of the 2026 WRTA Nonprofit Awards in Youngstown, and the gift lands in a region where early help matters: as NewsForce247 reported when a Cleveland anchor said a routine screening found her colon cancer, catching a health problem early changes everything that follows.
What happens next: the five-year initiative rolls out across the Valley’s 10 locations and care settings, with the referral and wait-time gains the hospital reported for TABBICAT as the benchmark the expanded programs will be measured against.