SURREY – A state-of-the-art unit for children and adolescents with urgent mental health issues is set to open this spring at Surrey Memorial Hospital. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Stabilization Unit (CAPSU) will be home to a Snoezelen™ Room, a multi-sensory environment used to help reduce agitation and anxiety and stimulate and encourage communication, the first of its kind for children and youth in a hospital psychiatric unit in Canada.
CAPSU will serve young people from across the Fraser Health region, aged six to 17, who need a five- to seven-day stay in hospital for stabilization. Cloverdale Paint, one of the city’s oldest and most successful family-owned businesses, has contributed $1 million to the new unit through the Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation. The unit will be named in their honour – the Cloverdale Paint Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Stabilization Unit.
Over the past 11 months, the space formerly occupied by the hospital’s old emergency department has been transformed into a therapeutic environment for children and adolescents experiencing an acute mental health crisis.
CAPSU will provide care to children and adolescents in a more appropriate setting. The specialized care team on this 10-bed unit will include psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and youth care counsellors. Currently, young people in the Fraser Health region who need urgent inpatient care are admitted to the six-bed unit at BC Children’s Hospital when a bed is available. If not, they either remain in the emergency department or are admitted to a pediatric ward or adult psychiatric unit in their local hospital.
CAPSU will open in late May. In addition to Cloverdale Paint’s contribution of $1 million to the Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation’s fundraising campaign for CAPSU, the Province is providing $2.2 million and Fraser Health is investing $820,000 in capital costs to create CAPSU, plus $4 million in annual operating costs.
Cloverdale Paint was established in 1933, and the corporate head office is still headquartered in Surrey. The company is the largest Canadian-owned and operated paint and coatings manufacturer, operating in the United States and Canada.
The community has donated more than $2 million to the Foundation to make CAPSU a therapeutic environment that complements the work of the specialized child and youth mental health professionals on the unit.
Today’s announcement supports a number of provincial priority areas that will help better meet the needs of people struggling with mental health and/or substance use issues. Budget 2017, with $165 million provided in targeted mental health and substance use supports and services, is helping government address gaps in the system. It is providing patients and families with better information and ways to navigate the system, and integrating and coordinating services throughout the province. The Ministry of Health invests about $1.45 billion each year to support people in need of mental health and/or substance use services and supports.(media@fraserhealth.ca)