UT Health Northeast Celebrates New Senior Behavioral Health Inpatient Unit
Posted/updated on: September 9, 2014 at 11:08 am
TYLER — UT Health Northeast hosted an open house Monday for its new Senior Behavioral Health inpatient unit. “Our region of Texas has a severe shortage of available inpatient facilities and care providers for mental and cognitive illnesses,” said Dr. Kirk Calhoun, president of UT Health Northeast. As the only university medical center in our region, we felt it was our responsibility to step up and help to alleviate some of the pressure on local providers and emergency rooms to find resources for those with acute behavioral health needs.”
The new 26-bed inpatient unit was designed to treat older adults age 55 and older who are suffering from acute psychiatric issues like severe depression or anxiety, suicidal thoughts, mania, hallucinations, and other behavioral disorders. Included on the unit is an area comprising 10 beds and dedicated to seniors who are experiencing memory and/or behavioral problems related to dementia or other cognitive impairments.
Additionally, a 4-bed ACE (Acute Care of the Elderly) section is located within the unit and is designed for seniors who, in addition to suffering from mental illness, have a medical condition that requires a higher level of nursing care thus alleviating the need for the patient to be transferred out of the unit for care.
“What makes our Senior Behavioral Health unit so unique,” says Sherry Bustin, Behavioral Health Administrator, “is that it has an open design with warm lighting, colors, and art that is not only soothing to seniors with vision and hearing issues, but it also provides patients and visitors with easy access to staff. Each private and semi-private room has large windows open to the beautiful and healing East Texas countryside.”
