Quebec’s social services minister unveiled three measures aimed at reducing the use of hospitalization for mental health patients in the southwest region of Montreal.
Speaking from Notre-Dame hospital, Lionel Carmant announced the measures, which are part of the Interministerial Action Plan on Mental Health 2022-2026.
“The patients benefit from staying in a safe environment where they can recuperate better and faster,” the minister said Monday.
“The deployment of alternatives to hospitalization is one of the key measures of our Mental Health Action Plan and makes it possible to bring care closer to people, to encourage the retention or rapid return of the person to their living environment, while preventing hospitalizations. This represents a cultural change in the care of people in need of mental health care and services.”
The three measures are the brief psychiatric intervention unit (UIBP), psychiatric hospitalization at home and the brief community support team (ABC).
The idea behind the brief psychiatric intervention unit is to hospitalize patients having an acute psychiatric episode for 48-72 hours, provide them with intense treatment, and then release them at home to continue receiving care there. The services are offered to people who could benefit from a short stay in a safe environment in hospital, offering 24-hour care to resolve the crisis quickly, then follow up at home. The specialized unit at the hospital has four beds and a team of 10 psychiatrists, nurses and experts available to provide care to patients in need at Notre Dame hospital.
“It’s always better to be home and to be nurtured home with the specific interventions,” said Dr. Stephane Proulx, the chief of the emergency psychiatric unit at Notre Dame hospital.
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The psychiatric hospitalization at home would see patients who qualify stay at home for the duration of their treatment, never getting admitted to the hospital. Patients would be seen by doctors, nurses or social workers at home, up to three times a day, seven days a week. Often family members will help and participate in the care of the patient, offering support in an environment familiar and comforting to the individual.
“(This is) where the team goes to a home once or three times a day to make sure services are rendered in a safer environment to patients and keeping family involved, which is a great benefit to our patients,” said Dr. Cedric Andres, the head of psychiatry at Notre-Dame hospital.
The brief community support team would see staff support a patient at home for a short period of time, to help the patient emerge from a mental health crisis, and to ensure they don’t fall through the cracks of the medical health system.
“I was waiting for that since a long time and now there is a political will to do this and I think it will be an improvement,” Proulx said.
The Notre-Dame hospital started employing the measures last year. Since then, nearly 90 per cent of people who benefited from home care have not needed to return to the emergency room.
The goal is for the intiatives to eventually become standard practice at all psychiatric units across Quebec.