Lakeshore General Partially Reopens Psychiatric Unit

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Psychiatric emergency services have returned to Lakeshore General Hospital (LGH) for the first time since it was designated a COVID-19 hospital 18 months ago and psychiatric services were temporarily transferred to the Douglas Institute in Verdun. A short stay inpatient unit has also been opened in the first step of the eventual return of pre-COVID psychiatric services offered at Pointe-Claire Hospital.

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The short stay inpatient section is located in a closed unit of the modular building near the emergency room. There, staff can assess and treat patients. Five single bed cabins are available for stays of up to 96 hours. Patients who need longer-term care are still being transferred to the Douglas Institute. Emergency psychiatric consultations resumed on October 4, and short-term psychiatric hospitalizations began two days later.

“I think it is very comforting for the people of West Islanders to receive treatment at their community hospital. Many of our patients are the ones who are being followed and they already know the services, it gives them a sense of familiarity, ”said Dr. Frederique Van Den Eynd, LGH’s chief medical officer of psychiatry. “It will also make a big difference for people seeking help. I think that for many people, going somewhere else was probably an obstacle they had to overcome in seeking help. “

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Van Den Eynd added that many of the staff from the psychiatric unit prior to COVID-19 have returned to the department: “The most important part of any crisis intervention is the staff; nurses, nurses, and staff are specialized in mental health services. The second part is that the unit is a closed unit and all the safety procedures that need to be put in place are in place so we are confident that this is a safe environment for patients to be treated for mental health (issues) . . “

The reopening of psychiatric services also means that the front-line community mental health organization, the West Island Crisis Center (WICC), can resume evaluating patients at the hospital to transition to outpatient care at the center.

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“That path was no more, so people had to find the crisis center on their own, which was more difficult,” said Maude Sigouin-Lacoste, WICC clinical director. “Our center was underused and less known to the Douglases. Often what happened is that people didn’t have access to the medical staff they already knew at Lakeshore, so they sometimes fell through the crack. People in crisis sometimes choose not to go to a new setting for services. “

Working hand in hand with community mental health organizations is “positive,” Van Den Eynd said. “It lowers the threshold for people to accept help … I think it’s a unique concept … that we can work so closely with them (WICC). We really want to keep people close to the community, treat them as much as possible in the community, and therefore you also need to make sure you have a psychiatric emergency room at your local hospital. “

Before COVID-19, LGH had 31 medium-term psychiatric beds where the average stay was 28 days. The partially reopened unit will have a full-time psychiatrist on call seven days a week with a psychiatrist on call in the evenings.

It is not yet clear when the old psychiatric unit, known as 4 East, will fully reopen. Van Den Eynd said it will depend on how the pandemic progresses, now in the fourth wave.