The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation has received $10,000 towards the health alliance’s plan for new therapeutic spaces for its mental health inpatients.
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The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation has received $10,000 towards the health alliance’s plan for new therapeutic spaces for its mental-health inpatients.
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The contribution from the Chatham Kent Community Foundation will help the hospital group’s plan to create spaces within the inpatient mental-health unit to eliminate outside stimulus as a form of therapy.
“A project of this size will require significant investment from our community, and we are fortunate to have such incredible support from the Chatham Kent Community Foundation early on in this endeavour,” Mary Lou Crowley, the foundation’s president and CEO, said in a news release.
Mental illness in Chatham-Kent, which had already been prevalent before the pandemic, has been “further accelerated” over the past 22 months, the release said.
“As we are all aware, the past two years have been very challenging for everyone in our community, which makes a program like the inpatient mental-health unit revitalization more important than ever,” Chris Pegg, executive director of the Chatham Kent Community Foundation , said in the release.
“The Chatham Kent Community Foundation is proud to support (the hospital foundation’s) efforts to help the community get through this difficult time and on the road to recovery.”
The release said there has been a trend of higher severity of illness among mental-health unit patients, with an increase in registered high-risk events. The health alliance has identified mental health as a “significant need” for the community, the release said.
The new rooms are meant to “focus on a recovery-based model of care” and build on “the current patient-centred approach” at the hospital, according to the release.
“This specialized space will help patients reset and feel calm,” Alan Stevenson, vice-president of mental health and addictions at the health alliance, said. “It offers privacy from other patients, and provides a safe space for patients who require a decrease in stimulation.”
Over 500 patients are admitted to the inpatient mental-health unit annually.