It’s bigger, brighter, and provides a better atmosphere for children who need to be in hospital for mental health care.
April 18th, 2016, Health Sciences North/Horizon Santé-Nord (HSN) officially opened its new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program (CAMHP) inpatient unit at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre.
The CAMHP unit provides inpatient mental health care services to children and youth under the age of 18 who live in the Sudbury and Manitoulin Districts and who have crisis, acute, and longer-term mental health care needs that require a stay in hospital.
The CAMHP unit was previously located at Kirkwood Place, a site of the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
“This large, bright self-contained unit will better support the privacy and treatment needs of the youth and their families, “says Mary Jago, Clinical Manager of HSN’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program. “Having the unit here at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre will also improve the coordination of care for these children and youth because our pediatric services are based here, along with inpatient mental health care. So we anticipate this relocation will improve access for these kids and reduce wait times for admission to the unit.”
The new CAMHP unit is larger than the previous location. In addition to bigger bedrooms, the new CAMHP unit also features a larger dining room, lounge, family room, and private therapy areas, plus expanded work areas for clinical staff, better laundry/linen facilities and more storage. The classroom is also on the same floor. In the previous location, children and youth had to travel to another part of the facility to go to school.
“I look forward to having the space to accommodate the children and their families and to meet their differing and unique needs,” says Kevin McPhee, a Social Worker and Family Therapist in CAMHP.
“It will be great to have the classroom and teachers on the same floor as our unit,” adds Renée Belanger, a Child and Youth Worker at CAMHP. “There will be less gaps and wasted time, and communication will flow better when we’re together in the same place.”
Mental health care has been identified as one of the most pressing health concerns for children and youth in Canada, including Greater Sudbury and northeastern Ontario. According to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), at least 15% of males and 22% of females in Ontario reported at least 1 mental health condition (including depression, anxiety disorder or panic attacks), while 22% of school-age children in Ontario saw a physician about their emotional or mental health in the last year. Since 2006, rates of ED visits increased by 45% and rates of inpatient hospitalizations increased by 37% for 5- to 24-year-olds with a mental health disorder.
“For everyone, especially children, good mental health is absolutely essential to good health overall, which is why the expansion of this unit is so important,” adds Dr. Denis Roy, HSN’s President and CEO. “At HSN, we’ve made children’s health a strategic priority, and this new unit is a key part of that strategy. We must pay more attention to the well-being of our children and youth, body and mind.”