Experts back closing of Grace psych building, some patients will be treated in community

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This article was published 09/05/2015 (3815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To current and former patients, it’s Club Grace, and to the movers and shakers in the field of mental health, it represents the last vestige of an old approach to caring for the mentally ill that needs to end.

Later this year, the dark brick building housing the Grace Hospital psychiatric unit will be torn down to make way for a new emergency department and MRI building.

The unit contains 20 acute-care psychiatric beds and 20 extended-treatment unit (ETU) beds for long-term stays. The former are being moved inside the main hospital; the latter are being done away with.

Proponents of the old facility like its relaxed atmosphere, its outdoor patio areas and the fact it’s not part of the main hospital building.

Margaret Chase, a former patient, laments the extended-treatment unit’s demise.

“It’s very unique, a place of refuge, a haven, a place to weather a storm like no other place in Winnipeg,” she said.

Those who are losing the facility have no voice, Chase said.

“They’re too scared, they’re too sick. Nobody takes them seriously.”

Progressive Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said she has heard concerns from patients and staff about the closure, and she worries patients will “fall through the cracks” when the ETU unit is closed in favour of community-based care.

“They’re feeling that closing this psych centre is a terrible idea for them,” she said.

But health officials say the building isn’t being torn down — and the ETU disbanded — to make way for new construction on the Grace Hospital campus.

Dr. Murray Enns, medical director of the mental health program for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said the decision to close it predates the hospital’s construction plans and is being done for medical reasons.

Treating patients in the community with plenty of supports has been shown to be more successful and less disruptive of their lives than lengthy stays in hospital, Enns said.

“The idea that being in hospital in and of itself is somehow good really doesn’t fit with the facts,” he said.

A local spokeswoman with the Canadian Mental Health Association agreed.

Marion Cooper, the association’s Winnipeg and Manitoba executive director, said Grace’s extended-treatment unit “is an outdated model.”

“I would concur that investing in community-based treatment like PACT teams is definitely best practice, and that’s what other jurisdictions have done,” she said.

PACT (program of assertive community treatments) is the acronym for the community-based care that will replace Grace’s ETU.

There are two other PACT teams in place — one located on Hargrave Street and one across from the Seven Oaks General Hospital.

The new one will be based in the Access centre adjacent to the Grace.

Enns said PACT teams include a psychiatrist, nurses, social workers and occupational therapists. They work in the community and will visit clients in their home, more than once a day if needed.

“What we find with our own data in Winnipeg is that we reduce hospital reliance by over 80 per cent when we introduce PACT teams,” he said.

Grace Hospital is the last to have an extended-treatment unit for mental health patients.

Enns said while hospitalization may be required for psychiatric patients, stays should be relatively short and not dragged out.

“People actually lose some elements of function and autonomy and independence when they stay in the hospital for an extended period of time,” he said.

Kellie O’Rourke, chief operating officer at Grace Hospital, said the plan is to close the ETU by Oct. 30.

The building is expected to be torn down late this year or early next year.

She said a new space on the hospital’s fifth floor will be “purpose-built” for the 20 acute-care psychiatric beds. Unlike in the current building, all rooms will be equipped with bathrooms and showers, she said.

larry.kusch@ freepress.mb.ca