Mental Health Agency Responds to Hospital ER
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2015
Pamela Lynn, Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma;
Shelly Schwake, Mercy Hospital Ardmore; and Todd Ferrand,
Mercy Hospital Ardmore, addressed crisis mental health
services with the Love County Community Coalition in July.
Pamela Lynn, program director of the adult Crisis Stabilization Unit on the campus of Mercy Hospital Ardmore, spoke to the Love County Community Coalition in July about vital mental health crisis services for Love County adults of all ages.
All are offered under the direction of our community mental health agency, Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma (MHSSO). The agency covers nine area counties.
Crisis Diversion Team - travels to the Marietta hospital emergency room and jail to evaluate persons who are experiencing a mental health crisis. The person may have been arrested or placed under an emergency order of detention pending a mental health evaluation.
The team may determine a mental hospital admission is best if the patient is in immediate danger of harm to self or others or is acutely unable to meet their basic needs. (Eligible senior patients may be referred to the Senior Behavioral Health Unit at Mercy Hospital Ardmore).
The crisis diversion team endeavors to "divert" the patient from the state mental hospital by stabilizing the patient where they are and arranging for outpatient mental health care. The team and the patient develop a resolution plan. The team follows up with the person within 24 hours to monitor the outcome of diversion.
Persons admitted to the state hospital under these circumstances traditionally have been transported by law enforcement, handcuffed in the back of the police car. Under a new Oklahoma law, communities may establish civilian transport service, under mental health agency direction.
Urgent Recovery Center - Adults with a serious mental illness or emotional disorder often experience significant crises, not all of them related to mental disability.
Some, according to mental health experts, arise from additional factors, such as poverty unstable housing, substance use, other health problems, discrimination, and victimization.
Crisis services can be traumatic when they are involuntary, as described above.
That is why the state and Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma developed an Urgent Recovery Center. This is a 6-chair stabilization unit on the campus of Mercy Hospital Ardmore with a maximum stay of 23 hours and 59 minutes. (A new period of stay may immediately follow the first).
The hope and experience has been that persons in crisis will contact this new and voluntary level of crisis care. The threshold to receive crisis care is lower than immediate danger of harm to self or others or the acute inability to meet basic needs.
Attended by recovery support specialists, the person can stabilize and prevent an escalation of their circumstances.
Lynn gave an example of a patient who self admitted because of an anxiety attack. The day in the unit provided a "cooling off" period.
Crisis Stabilization Unit - This is an inpatient mental health unit with 16 beds. It also is located on the campus of Mercy Hospital Ardmore. MHSSO therapists and nurses tend to adults admitted because of an acute mental health crisis.
According to Lynn, the unit is full at all times. The unit serves insured and uninsured patients. It opened in 2013. "Last year, we served 2,000 patients," Lynn said.
The contact information for the Crisis Stabilization Unit and the Urgent Recovery Center is (580) 798-4523. The address is 1219 K St. NW, Ardmore. There is a Facebook page (Crisis Stabilization Unit).
The contact information for outpatient services at Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma is (580) 223-5070.
Love County Mental Health Counseling -- Bruce Hammond, LPC, is the sole mental health practitioner in Love County. He is a licensed professional counselor who provides individual and family therapy. His office is in the Mercy Love County Adult Day Center and Family Services at 200 Wanda St. His telephone number is (580) 276-7545.