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Natchaug Hospital
expanding to offer more children’s services
(February
2008 Issue)
By Elinor Nelson
With the addition of three beds to its pediatric and adolescent
psychiatry unit, Connecticut's Natchaug Hospital is expecting to
service another 100 children each year and increase the psychiatric
hospital's coverage to 98% of eastern Connecticut's need for children's
inpatient care. The January opening of the new wing was aimed for
the peak season of January to May, when the most children need care
- and when the overflow has been held in chaotic and noisy hospital
emergency rooms for hours or even days waiting for hospital beds
in pediatric psychiatric units.
The $950,000 wing includes three private patient rooms (increasing
the child and adolescent beds to 24) as well as a reconfigured nurses'
station, clinician's offices, storage and laundry areas, a new
group therapy room and new landscaping. The state has contributed
$300,000 and the hospital has raised another $350,000; rather than
delay construction, Natchaug has financed the balance with a bridge
loan while continuing fundraising efforts.
"This [addition] should make a huge difference," says Lillian Rhodes,
Natchaug's director of community relations. Natchaug will continue
to treat children in small group settings, she says, which have
been found to be more effective than treating them "en mass."
"The CEOs of all the area's general hospitals are encouraging this,"
says Rhodes. "They are on the advisory board for our campaign, which
affirms that it is a good program."
Natchaug's new wing comes at a time when the state of Connecticut
is increasing its own efforts to serve children with mental illness.
The state is acquiring more therapeutic group homes that Rhodes
says can serve as an alternative to inpatient beds, as well as a
step-down for patients who have completed an inpatient stay but
for various reasons cannot return home. This "moderates the need
for inpatient beds and frees them up," she adds, contributing to
Natchaug's three-bed addition being a "doable" solution.
Natchaug Hospital is one of six locations in Connecticut providing
inpatient psychiatric treatment for children and one of nine providing
beds for adolescents.
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