{"id":32685,"date":"2023-03-02T19:10:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T00:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32685"},"modified":"2023-03-09T18:59:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T23:59:37","slug":"southlake-welcomes-first-patients-to-new-mental-health-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/southlake-welcomes-first-patients-to-new-mental-health-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Southlake welcomes first patients to new mental health unit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Southlake Regional Health Centre on Tuesday welcomed the first patients to its new mental health unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years in the works and made possible through $7.5 million raised by the community during its Better Begins Today mental health capital campaign, the new space is expected to significantly increase capacity at the local hospital and see more than 400 more patients this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its completion, Southlake\u2019s total inpatient mental health capacity will increase from 24 to 37 beds and the new spaces are designed to be a brighter, warmer, and more welcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe brightness, the light coming in has a huge, huge impact on patients struggling with their recovery and being on that journey to wellness, says Aga Dojczewska, Manager, Adult Outpatient Mental Health and Emergent Mental Health Assessment Unit. \u201cThe colours here are very encouraging and bright and everybody is noticing this is a good environment, that this is providing that lift and oomph that we need to start the journey to recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the features of the new unit highlighted by Dojczewska and Nathan Robinson, Southlake\u2019s Director of Capital Development, on a Monday tour were single-bed rooms that allow patients to have much-needed privacy, cameras in rooms so medical teams can make sure patients are safe, welcoming consultation areas, activity rooms, and areas where patients can meet with their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an average of 17 patients coming into our emergency room and we don\u2019t have that capacity in our [previous] mental health unit to make sure that they are admitted,\u201d says Dojczewska, noting that sometimes patients were transferred to different hospitals. \u201cA lot of times we\u2019re able to provide supports in our community, but for patients who are in crisis we can\u2019t say, \u2018This is your support in the community and go,\u2019 we really have to take care of them. We do have the emergent mental health assessment unit and the premise of that unit is to have a patient assessed and move to a unit within 24 hours. We\u2019re not able to do that the past several years because we did not have that capacity. Just having the rooms, the beds, the appropriate space, will be very helpful for us to help patients move from the emergency room to the unit right here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provincial Health Minister Sylvia Jones, accompanied by Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa, King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce, and Southlake leadership had a tour of the new space last week and hailed the advances in its walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u201cThe new Adult Inpatient Mental Health Unit at Southlake is another example of how our government is expanding health care services closer to home,\u201d said MPP Gallagher Murphy in a statement. \u201cThis newly renovated space will ensure that individuals who need emergency mental health support receive the care they need, in a safe, modern, comfortable environment. Thank you to Southlake for everything you do to support our community and for helping residents on their journey to wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added MPP Parsa: \u201cI am proud to celebrate the opening of Southlake Regional Health Centre\u2019s new adult mental health unit, and the role it will play in breaking down barriers for mental health care. This expansion will allow individuals in our community to get the treatment they need, when they need it \u2013 empowering them to live healthy, productive lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southlake Regional Health Centre President & CEO Arden Krystal said she was \u201cthrilled\u201d to see the unit open to increase access to mental health care in the hospital\u2019s catchment area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks to the investment from the Ontario government and the generosity of our donors, we are able to care for more patients in a space that is suited specifically for their needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks were also given to everyone in the community who contributed to the capital campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a general excitement when you open a space, but what I\u2019ve observed is it is heightened with this space,\u201d said Robinson. \u201cIt is something that has been on the radar obviously for years and once people have had the opportunity\u2026. It brings that level of excitement, so the staff are very much looking forward to the space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Dojczewska: \u201cThe majority of our mental health staff have come through the space and they just want to work here. They are saying they want to come and be here every day, which is helping create a different energy, which is helping us build therapeutic relationships with our patients because if you\u2019re positive, that energy is just contagious and it is very helpful for anybody that is coming here. They are impressed with the size of the space, they\u2019re impressed with the technologies, and they are seeing that we do care about staff safety and patient safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southlake Regional Health Centre on Tuesday welcomed the first patients to its new mental health unit. Years in the works and made possible through $7.5 million raised by the community during its Better Begins Today mental health capital campaign, the new space is expected to significantly increase capacity at the local hospital and see more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8vb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 14:34:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}