FLORENCE — A Florence hospital now has a specialized unit to provide care for children experiencing acute psychiatric crises.
McLeod Regional Medical Center recently opened its EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing) Unit, a pediatric behavioral health crisis stabilization unit. It was one of 13 state hospitals to receive funding from the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to build specialized hospital-based emergency department units dedicated to behavioral health crises, according to a press release from the hospital.
The 15-bed specialized unit provides a space dedicated to rapid improvement and stabilization, enabling children to receive immediate treatment at the time of presentation, according to the release. Patients are assessed and treated in an open space where they are free to move around.
McLeod Pediatric Intensive Care Unit has both a pediatric intensivist and a pediatric hospitalist on call at all hours, every day.
“Over the past few years, the national mental health crisis has only deepened, and pediatric mental health-related emergency department visits have been increasing, especially among girls,” said Rebecca Vincent, vice president of Women’s and Children’s Services. “This project is a necessary response to the entrenched obstacles to care affecting this patient population.”
The pediatric behavioral health patient treated at McLeod will receive intense individual and group therapy tailored to situations and cognitive and developmental stages, according to the release. The premise is that if a patient can be stabilized in a nurturing environment with professional and peer support within the initial 72 hours and de-escalated to a state of safety, outpatient follow-up treatment may serve as a sustainable alternative versus progression to acute inpatient psychiatric care.
The EmPATH model has been successful in reducing the length of stay and inpatient admissions and improving the rate of follow-up care.
The McLeod Health Foundation announced in September that it received $580,000 from the Duke Endowment to support staffing costs for the unit’s first two years.