Christiana Care Health System plans to add patient beds in its behavioral health operation in coming years.
In a presentation to its Behavioral and Mental Health Task Force last week, the health care system announced it will expand the inpatient psychiatry unit from 24 to 30 beds at Wilmington Hospital, The unit provides medical services for patients with psychiatric illness.
The presentation also touched on the Behavioral Health Service Line. The service provides integrated care and continues to add programs and resources to treat patients dealing with substance abuse, a growing problem in Delaware and the nation.
Substance abuse has put pressure on many areas of the health care system, including behavioral health.
In March, the Behavioral Health Service Line will launch a pilot program to improve the care of illicit opioid-dependent hospitalized patients, including pregnant women. The new program includes screening patients admitted to the hospital for risk of opioid withdrawal and the use of standardized protocols to monitor and treat withdrawal.
The presentation outlined work in reaching more people in providing mental health services.
Christiana took some heat when it moved to an Integrated Behavioral Health Model of embedded therapists within specialty and family medicine practices and dropped a day program.
“Since November 2014 when we began integrating behavioral health consultants in 11 primary care and one specialty care practice, the team has seen more than 3,100 patients for a total of more than 8,500 sessions. is stands in contrast to the nearly 2,000 adults, children, and adolescents, on average, who we were able to serve previously,” Christiana Care noted.
Consultants have recently been hired at health centers in Smyrna and Middletown.
Success stories cited included:
- A man facing a series of heart tests for chest pains feared he would need surgical intervention. He learned he was, instead, experiencing treatable effects of anxiety and depression.
- A woman with diabetes wasn’t properly managing her condition because she had panic attacks about giving herself daily injections. She learned coping and relaxation skills that now make it possible for her to take her insulin on the prescribed schedule.
Christiana Care also cited the Adolescent Bridge Program, which provides help to those seeking mental health experts to address anxiety, depression, stress, anger management, relationship conflicts, and other issues.
Other programs discussed were:
- Project Engage, an early intervention program that helps substance-using hospital patients connect with community-based treatment programs. The program has reached nearly 4,500 patients at inpatient units and emergency departments of both Christiana and Wilmington hospitals. Project Engage has led to an increase in patients who enroll in community-based drug treatment programs and a reduction in 30-day readmissions among patients with substance-abuse problems.
- Behavioral Health Rapid Response Team comprised of behavioral health professionals including nurses, psychiatrists and mental health associates trained to respond to patients who require immediate attention to address a psychiatric situation in the hospital.
- The Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness. Christiana Care supports women planning to become pregnant, throughout pregnancy, delivery and the first year after birth with outpatient therapy and medication management. In 2015, the team consulted with 240 new mothers in the hospital immediately following delivery and conducted 2,750 outpatient visits. Christiana Care screens all new mothers for mood and anxiety symptoms after childbirth, before they leave the hospital.
- Beginning in 2017 Christiana Care is starting a Psychology Internship Program where psychologists will be integrated into outpatient and inpatient settings throughout the health system to receive training.
- In 2018, the system will offer a Behavioral Health Residency Program to train psychiatrists.
