Help is on the way for children and youth in crisis in the Fraser Valley.
In late May, a special unit for young people between the ages of six and 17 suffering from acute mental health issues will open at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
The 10-bed child and adolescent psychiatric stabilization unit has been built in the hospital’s old emergency department and will be the first mental-health unit of its kind in Fraser Health. There is only one similar unit in B.C. — the six-bed child and adolescent psychiatric emergency unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
Children and youth will be brought to emergency rooms, where they will be assessed by an emergency physician and psychiatrist, and then referred to the stabilization unit if it’s appropriate.
A 10-bed Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Stabilization Unit has been built in Surrey Memorial Hospital’s former emergency department.
The unit is meant to treat patients for a short time — up to a week — and they will then be referred to child and youth mental health services in the community, most of which are provided by the provincial government.
“It’s very intensive support over a short period of time,” said Stan Kuperis, director of mental health and substance abuse services for Fraser Health. “The focus is really on crisis stabilization.”
Currently, children and youth who show up at the Surrey hospital in a mental health crisis will be assessed and then referred to the unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital. If there is no space, they will often end up in a pediatric ward or adult psychiatric unit at a local hospital.
“That certainly is far from ideal,” said Kuperis. “The intent of this unit is to provide that highly specialized child and youth mental health service. This is a highly specialized team. The whole environment and the team is really geared toward children and youth with mental health needs.”
For instance, the unit will be home to a Snoezelen Room, a multi-sensory environment used to help reduce agitation and anxiety and stimulate and encourage communication. It’s often used as a therapy for people with autism and other developmental disabilities. The room will be the first of its kind for children and youth in a hospital psychiatric unit in Canada.
There will also be a “parent-in-residence program,” with a parent who has lived experience of having a child with mental illness available to support parents of patients.
Manjit Sidhu was among those Friday who spoke to the need for services such as the new facility. Her daughter Sharon had graduated from the University of B.C., worked full-time with Fraser Health, volunteered, and was in her 20s when she died.
“She had many friends and a very loving family – but Sharon also struggled with mental illness and this was very devastating,” said Sidhu.
“Mental illness does not just affect some sorts of individuals, it can affect anyone. Mental illness can come as a shock to a family and the stigma of mental illness is so loud, it’s deafening.”
Money to fund the unit came from a variety of sources, including Cloverdale Paint’s $1-million donation to the Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation’s fundraising campaign, which raised a total of about $2 million.
The provincial government provided $2.2 million and Fraser Health contributed $820,000 in capital costs and will pay $4 million annually to operate the unit.
