St. Joe's unveils Mountain mental-health plan
2014 opening for new treatment centre
September 22, 2009
Dana Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/639328
It will be a new multimillion-dollar facility, set to reflect how views about mental health and addiction have changed.
The new West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare won't be buried at the back of its site at Fennell Avenue West and West 5th Street as the old Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital was, but is expected to be visible and up front.
It will house 305 beds, but will offer a variety of general and specialty outpatient clinics and will continue to serve the surrounding communities of 2.5 million people.
"Our goal is that it really should ... bring about a transformation in how our community sees mental health and addictions and how they access care for mental health and addictions," said Dr. Robert Zipursky, chief of psychiatry and integrated vice-president for mental health and addiction services for St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences.
Zipursky is also chair of psychiatry at McMaster University medical school.
The psychiatric hospital, which became part of St. Joe's in 2001, will be torn down, but there's been no decision about the other structures on the property.
Zipursky said it is expected that of the thousands of people visiting the site each year, most will be treated as outpatients. There will also be fully developed diagnostic imaging services, like MRIs and ultrasounds.
"We felt it was very important that it not just be a hospital for people to come to with mental health and addiction problems," he said.
"It's important to break down the barriers between treatments for mental illnesses and treatments for other medical illnesses."
Kevin Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, said the facility will be a "huge plank" in the regional mental health program for this part of the province.
"It'll be transformative in terms of the kinds of services we can provide, the environment we can provide them in and the opportunity to bring clinical practice, research, education and consumerism together in a very unique model."
Zipursky said that, in the past, mental health problems were regarded as rare and patients might end up hospitalized for years or decades.
But now, hospital stays are shorter and mental illness is seen as more common.
Zipursky said one in five adults experiences a diagnosable mental illness every year and the same number of kids will experience a mental illness during their childhood.
"Unfortunately, mental illness and addictions have been shrouded by overwhelming stigma ... and we're now able to appreciate that ... (they) are no different from any other type of disorder that doctors treat that involve other parts of the body," he said.
For the most part, programs currently being offered at the site will continue while construction takes place. Once the new facility is completed, they will move over and the old hospital will be torn down.
The project is being funded primarily by the provincial government, but the hospital will also be putting forward a substantial contribution.
Zipursky said cost of the project will be established through the competitive bidding process.
The three qualified bidders that will vie for the project were recently announced. Requests for proposals will now move forward and ground is expected to be broken late next year or in early 2011.
The project is expected to be completed by 2014.