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Mental health emergency care unit opening in Winchester

Karen Dorr, senior director of behavioral health services at Valley Health, shows reporters a room on the unit where patients can decompress.
Randi B. Hagi
Karen Dorr, senior director of behavioral health services at Valley Health, shows reporters a room on the unit where patients can decompress.

Valley Health is opening a new emergency department in Winchester – specifically for treating those in a mental health crisis. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.

The ER at Winchester Medical Center treated about 2,500 people in a mental health crisis last year. Starting Oct. 29, those patients can now go to the EmPATH unit, which stands for Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing. This is the second of its kind in the state – the first opened in Lynchburg last year.

Karen Dorr, the health system's senior director of behavioral health services, said the traditional emergency department is just not set up to best treat mental health issues.

KAREN DORR: It’s a chaotic place. It can be loud. It’s not set up as a therapeutic space for people who are in crisis. … So we wanted a whole team of behavioral health clinicians to be able to meet with these patients quickly, address their needs, either transfer them to our inpatient unit or send them home with all the appointments they need.

The physical space is well-lit, with soothing nature scenes on the walls and what's known as anti-ligature features, where objects like countertops and door handles are designed so it's hard to harm yourself with them.

Staff will include psychiatric nurses, peer specialists, mental health technicians, therapists, social workers, and psychiatric nurse practitioners. They're still hiring for the unit, but Dorr said they have enough clinicians to open. And unlike many mental healthcare providers in the Commonwealth, she's not worried about being able to maintain staffing levels.

DORR: The nursing staff who are here, they love these patients, they love their colleagues, they love Valley Health.

The unit was built with $2.5 million in state funds. Dorr said the Valley Health Foundation also supports the system's ongoing expansion of behavioral health services.

Randi B. Hagi first joined the WMRA team in 2019 as a freelance reporter. Her writing and photography have been featured in The Harrisonburg Citizen, where she previously served as the assistant editor; as well as The Mennonite; Mennonite World Review; and Eastern Mennonite University's Crossroads magazine.