winchester — Valley Health is opening a new facility to provide immediate mental health care to people in crisis.
The Valley Health Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing (EmPATH) Unit, located at Winchester Medical Center on Amherst Street, will be the first facility of its kind in Virginia to provide immediate access to help from specialized mental health professionals. It will be a place where people in need can seek advice. No matter what time of the day or night, knock on our door and come see us.
Although the EmPATH unit won’t open until Oct. 29, Valley Health held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility Thursday morning. The approximately 50 people in attendance included staff from the Valley Health Department, local law enforcement officers, and representatives from local and state governments.
Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz said the new EmPATH unit was created thanks in large part to support from the Virginia General Assembly. Rep. Bill Wiley (R-Frederick County) was recognized at a ceremony Thursday for helping secure $2.5 million in state funding for the force.
“We are pleased to be a pioneer in this effort in the state,” Wiley said. “It’s nice to hear that you can knock on the door and get help right away.”
“We must always respond to the needs of our community,” Nantz said. “I think we all know someone who has done something, whether it’s to themselves or to someone else. What we said earlier is that it doesn’t matter who that person is. No, but that’s what made sense to that person in that moment. That person in that moment could be any of us, and the last thing they want is chaos in the emergency room. .”
Currently, all psychiatric patients who come to Winchester Medical Center, whether they arrive on their own, by ambulance or under police protection, are directed to the hospital’s emergency department.
Karen Dorr, senior director of nursing for behavioral health services at Valley Health, provided a tour of the new EmPATH unit, a quiet space located near the main entrance of Winchester Medical Center’s North Tower.
Visitors noticed that the furniture had no hard corners and the counters were set at an angle. That’s because everything on the EmPATH unit, including the uniquely shaped door handle, is ligature-proof, Do says, so there is no place for a suicidal person to attach a rope or cord to self-harm. It means that.
“We want the patient to be able to move freely within this space in a way that they cannot in a non-ligated space,” Do said. “All of this is designed to keep patients safe and give them maximum freedom.” [possible] In this space. ”
Doll also pointed out that the chairs and tables in the ward are so heavy that it is difficult for patients in mental distress to throw them.
The brightly lit EmPATH units are painted and decorated in a predominantly blue, green, and yellow color scheme. Jenny Reed, Valley Health’s psychiatry liaison manager, said this color was specifically chosen because it has been shown to have a calming effect.
There are two types of patients who utilize EmPATH units. Patients who voluntarily seek treatment and patients who are brought in by law enforcement to determine whether psychiatric help is needed.
Those who volunteer to seek assistance enter a small waiting area before being pre-evaluated by a triage nurse. If an EmPATH unit is helpful, patients will be seen by a mental health professional or, if a professional is not on-site, directed to a separate room for a telehealth consultation.
“They’re going to have access to psychiatric care 24/7,” whether it’s in-person or telemedicine, Do said.
People waiting to see a psychiatrist are assigned to a large room equipped with comfortable reclining chairs. If you need help calming down while waiting to be seen, a comfortable private room with overstuffed bean bag chairs that swing back and forth is available.
“I think we all register in order [in the beanbag rocker]” said Doll.
Next to the comfort room is another private room with a bed for patients who want to lie down without using a recliner or bean bag locker, Doll said.
Patients are examined by a doctor in a separate private room. Based on your doctor’s instructions, you can be sent home, hospitalized, or referred to another psychiatric facility.
Opposite the EmPATH unit is space for involuntary psychiatric patients. This is where an officer can take the person and determine if the person is experiencing a mental health emergency and needs immediate treatment.
If a person is brought in involuntarily, the officer must remain with the person until doctors determine the best course of action. Local law enforcement agencies have long argued that this would keep police off the streets for up to eight hours at a time. The new EmPATH unit does not change that arrangement, but only one law enforcement officer can be assigned to the unit to monitor all involuntary admissions, and other officers cannot return to duty. It is set so that it is not possible.
“Our law enforcement heroes spend far too much time sitting in emergency rooms across the commonwealth,” said Nelson Smith, director of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
Another time-saving feature for law enforcement is direct communication from the EmPATH unit to the local magistrate’s office.
“You can speak directly to the judge about obtaining an emergency detention order.” [for involuntary patients in critical need of treatment] If necessary,” Dole said.
If an involuntary patient is treated at EmPATH and a physician determines that the patient is no longer a threat to themselves or others, the patient may be released from police custody or, if charged with a crime, Northwestern. You may be transferred to a regional adult detention center. Doctors can also determine whether involuntary patients need to be hospitalized or transferred to Western State Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital in Staunton.
Data shared by Valley Health shows that new EmPATH units are indeed needed. Last year, 2,478 adults underwent psychiatric evaluation at Winchester Medical Center’s emergency department. Of these, 1,596 people were hospitalized, including 123 involuntary patients who had been given temporary detention orders by magistrates.
“Clearly, there is a need for mental health care in our community and in our country,” said Winchester Medical Center Director Tonya Smith. “I’m so proud to be part of an organization that believes and takes action that mental health is just as important as heart, lung health and all the other illnesses we treat every day.”
“” — Rep. Bill Wiley (R-Frederick County) {relative_content_uuid}33054770-a373-40b7-8baa-de778f5a4dce{/popular_content_uuid}
