LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – Starting Thursday, Emplify Health by Gundersen’s new EmPATH unit is accepting patients.
The $5.2 million Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing unit provides patients struggling with a mental crisis to be moved from an emergency room into a quiet and calm environment. Patients in EmPATH will meet with behavioral health professionals.
“We’re working through treatment plans and goals, and what to bring you here, what’s those crises that are going on, and try to work those. Patients are also going to be interacting with social workers, community health workers, and nurses. Everybody’s working hard to wrap services around the patient, so they can get on to that next level of care that they need and be able to get back into the community,” says Emplify clinical operations director for behavioral health Josh Court.
Emplify officials add that the opening of the new unit will also allow more space in emergency rooms for other patients.
“Our emergency rooms continue to break records every single year on the amount of patients coming through. Behavioral health patients, when they come to the emergency room, we want to be able to get them that specialized care that they need, and then allow the emergency rooms to continue working through patients who are there for their medical crises,” says Court.
Leaders say this project was made possible by the community’s support and donations, adding that it shows how much the community cares about mental health.
“People in our community believed in this vision and believed it’s an important thing that patients have access to. To be at this point where we’re opening the doors is incredibly rewarding to know that this is possible because our community has supported Emplify Health by Gundersen to continue to expand resources for patients in need,” says Gundersen Medical Foundation director of philanthropy Mandy Richardson.
After the crisis is addressed, the patient will work with that treatment team to determine what best fits their situation, which could include transfer to inpatient behavioral health or discharge and follow up in one of outpatient programs.
The unit will have a soft opening on Monday through Friday for the first few weeks, before being open all seven days of the week.
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