Day program for acute mental-health patients to be set up at Hillsborough Hospital

Health P.E.I. has announced some major changes to its mental-health services, including a new "partial hospitalization program" and a consolidation of acute mental-health care beds in Charlottetown.

The new program will provide 12 additional acute day program treatment spaces at the Hillsborough Hospital.

Corinne Rowswell, the chief operating officer for Health P.E.I., said the spaces will allow patients who do not require inpatient care to still access the mental-health services they need. 

"They would be receiving psychiatric care. They would be potentially seeing a social worker, social services worker, group therapy — whatever is really needed to ensure that people have the support that they need to actually live independently in the community."

To support the new service, the current inpatient capacity at Unit 9 of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital — the psychiatric ward — will be transferred to the Hillsborough Hospital. 

And the special care unit, currently on Unit 7 of Hillsborough Hospital, will be transferred to the former Unit 9. 

Health P.E.I. plans to implement changes in stages, starting in late June. The 12 new day treatment spaces at Hillsborough Hospital are expected to be available in the early fall.

The transition will include support for patients, clients and families to minimize any disruption they may experience along the way, Health P.E.I. said.