The St. Paul Hospital is hoping to increase to the number of beds in the psychiatric unit as well as the number of staff available.
According to Community Medical Director Dr. Francis Adebayo, the unit was increased to 12 beds in August 2018 and they hope to see that number increase to 16.
“Most of them are always filled. That’s why we’re looking for an additional four. There’s work going on for that, as well as the possibility of increasing the number of psychiatrists available to the hospital because the hospital is a designated mental health facility,” said Adebayo.
He said right now there are three psychiatrists working at the St. Paul Hospital, and that because it is a designated mental health facility, it receives patients in need of mental health care from other communities all across the Lakeland region.
“Alberta Health Services is working alongside them to provide more support in terms of staffing so they will get extra hands to work with them in the near future,” said Adebayo, noting two part-time positions have been created for psychiatric nurses in the emergency room in St. Paul.
“They will assist in triaging psychiatric patients and assist with the burden the psychiatrist face and the load that comes through that emergency room with regards to mental health,” said Adebayo.
He said there is also a mental health crisis team working in the emergency room, which has extended their hours to be available until 10 p.m. to alleviate some of the burden on the psychiatrists.
“AHS has offered to provide all that support. There’s also this assertive community outreach program. They try to make sure that when patients are transferred from acute care, they follow up with them to make sure treatment orders are carried out, so it doesn’t cause more relapses where they end up being readmitted,” said Adebayo, noting that while the program is fairly new the reports he has received so far suggest it has been successful.
Another new initiative that aims to reduce the number of transfers from other communities to the St. Paul Hospital is a tele-health project being piloted in Cold Lake.
“People who have a mental health patient in Cold Lake are doing a telephone consult with the psychiatrist here to reduce the travel time, having to transport patients, to minimize that and increase timely access,” said Adebayo. “That’s something that has just been developed so we’ll see how it goes.”
