The new temporary mental health assessment unit is set to open and accept patients Monday at the Royal University Hospital. The seven-bed unit will provide patients in need of urgent mental health care a more suitable space for treatment.
“This space will allow us to be able to see people more quickly and to not see that progression of the mental health crisis, because they will be in a more calm environment where there’s not so much stimulation and exposure to the other trauma-related issues that are happening in the emergency department,” Tracy Muggli, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s director of Mental Health and Addictions, said.
The unit was designed with the help of patient advisors, to ensure the environment best serves the patients’ mental wellbeing.
“We took their lead and we involved them in the design and in the operational plan,” Muggli said. “It’s been absolutely critical to how this unit is going to operate.”
Patient advisor Allan Zabraczki said many mental health patients had lost confidence in the system.
“People would come to the emergency department, maybe not get seen in time or feel that they wouldn’t get seen, so they leave after being triaged, and never get seen by a doctor,” he said. “Then they don’t get the help they need. They don’t get well and they come back. The cycle repeats itself.”
The space will be used until the new adult emergency department opens in late 2019.
