Mental Health during COVID-19 with QCH's MH team
QCH’s Mental Health team
A lot has changed in the past 14 months. Throughout it all, the Mental Health unit at Queensway Carleton Hospital has been caring for patients in need of their care – providing a number of supports for their patients, from inpatient care to outpatient services, as well as community partnerships to further support the mental health of those in the region.
Patients are cared for by an interdisciplinary team, consisting of Psychiatrists, Registered Nurses, Social Workers, an Occupational Therapist, Recreation Therapist, Psychologist, and a Family Physician.
Inpatient Care Increases
“We have many modes of service delivery in which we support those with mental illness in our community,” says Sherri Cannon, Clinical Manger of Mental Health. “Our inpatient unit provides a secure, safe, well-staffed and multidisciplinary team approach to provide stabilization to those patients experiencing acute symptoms of mental illness.”
The mental health inpatient unit team – while having initially seen a decrease in admissions at the beginning of the pandemic – has been consistently caring for an increased number of patients, many of whom end up staying longer in order to get the care they need. Recently, they’ve seen an increase in patients being affected by the varying effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and requiring mental health support as a result.
A large part of the care inpatients receive is through the inpatient therapeutic program: working with patients to get back to a healthy place to transition back to the community. In alignment with the COVID-19 safety measures, they have successfully maintained group programming in a safe manner over the last year, as patients develop routines, practice coping strategies, learn new skills, and start their recovery journey. Additionally, a peer support program in partnership with Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa (PSO) has been maintained, which focuses on mental health recovery from a peer perspective and offers unique support to patients from their individual lived experience in the mental health system and how to navigate the transition to the community.
Changing Outpatient Services
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outpatient team transitioned to providing virtual and telephone-based care to individuals and redesigned their service to create four new outpatient groups to better support the needs of their patients:
· The One STEP Transitional Day Treatment program
· The Working with Emotions group
· The Integrative Psychotherapy for Psychosis group
· The Process Psychotherapy program
These new outpatient groups have been designed to better support the needs of individuals presenting to the emergency department, transitioning from the inpatient mental health unit, and followed by psychiatrists on an outpatient basis.
The Neuroleptic Medication Clinic continues to serve patients in-person with COVID-19 safety measures in place as it is a high priority for patient care, providing patients the medication they need. The clinic is so successful that a pilot project is being initiated to add further resources and assess the effectiveness of nursing support, ultimately resulting in a decrease of inpatient admissions and/or emergency room visits.
Across QCH
· Crisis Intervention Service: provides just shy of 100 consultations to patients in the Emergency Department each month, making recommendations on next steps in mental health care
· Consultation Liaison Service: provides consultations to inpatient units across QCH through Psychiatrists and our Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist
“Our entire team works diligently across all our services to support patients and their mental health, whether they require acute care and/or crisis services, specialized services, individual and/or group therapy, peer support, interactional/informational self-help support, or community resources,” says Shruti Patel, Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist. “We work collaboratively as a team to ensure our patient’s mental health is supported and well cared for in all the services we provide, which directly impacts and benefits our patients. We are also working on improving our services and building capacity to better serve our patients within our department and across the organization.”
Construction begins
Looking towards the future
The demand for Mental Health services post-COVID-19 will only continue to rise, so the team is excited to see their unit officially start expanding as construction begins on their additional space, which will help them serve their patients more efficiently and effectively.
The expansion will add a second floor to the unit, a secure outdoor courtyard, and additional space for outpatient programming.
"The new build will completely revolutionize our ability to provide state-of-the-art mental health care in a beautiful, bright environment that supports safety of both staff and patients,” says Dr. Marion Malone, Chief of Psychiatry. “With more space, we will be able to run more outpatient groups at a time, provide inpatients with fresh air, and inpatient nurses will be able to more closely observe patients at high risk of harm. We are counting down the months!"