AURORA, Colo. — University of Colorado Hospital is set to open a new inpatient behavioral health unit at the end of the month — the first such unit at the hospital since 2009.
The 40 beds will open in a newly remodeled space designed with a sometimes challenging patient population in mind. The hospital room doors can be removed from their hinges if a patient barricades themselves inside, for example.
"Personally, I have had somebody pick up a chair and throw it at me," said UCHealth Senior Director of Inpatient Behavioral Health Anne Felton, while demonstrating how the chairs in the new unit are weighed down to prevent that from happening.
UCHealth points to a growing need for mental health services of all kinds — including inpatient beds. Elicia Bunch, its vice president of behavioral health, said Colorado needs to improve in the field, citing a study from non-profit Mental Health America.
"We're actually rated number 51 in the nation in terms of access for adults. So with the highest needs and lowest access," Bunch said.
Other hospitals are also expanding psych beds — including a groundbreaking two weeks ago for a new 144-bed facility in Westminster from Intermountain Health and Acadia Healthcare.
Finding patients will not be a problem, but finding staff can be.
"Well I'm not naïve, but I am confident that we'll be able to do that. We're already positioned well to open," Felton said.
Other facilities aren't so lucky. To fill staffing shortages at the state's psychiatric hospitals, Colorado is offering new nurses a $14,000 sign-on bonus.
Because, as Felton said, it takes someone special to enter this field and to stay in it. "We can teach anybody how to deliver care, how to insert a line, how to listen to beeps and know what to do next," she said. "But what I can't teach as well is kind of kindness and compassion."
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