YANKTON, S.D.(WNAX)- The official groundbreaking was held Wednesday for the new Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health facility in Yankton.

Executive Director Dr. Tom Stanage says it’s a major move.

Stanage says it will expand and improve mental health services in the region and the state.

Stanage says they will be able to work better with the near by Human Services Center.

A major portion of the funding for the new Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health facility in Yankton came from the US Department of Agriculture.

Nikki Gronli, the state director of Rural Development for the USDA  in South Dakota, says its filling a vital need.

Gronli says mental health care is near crisis mode.

Gronli says USDA was able to increase the grants available to Lewis & Clark.

The twenty six million dollar project will add sixty thousand square feet of treatment and office space.