Montgomery County MH-MR Emergency Service

Programs: Inpatient psychiatric care: mces provides acute inpatient psychiatric care to individuals determined to need a short stay of intensive 24-hour clinical care to attain stability and safety because of a severe mental health crisis or potentially life-threatening psychiatric emergency. Services are patient-centered and recovery-oriented and delivered by a multidisciplinary team that involves the patient and their family or support system as optimally as possible. Patients participate in daily psychoeducational and recreational groups, and have access to certified peer specialists and their recovery coach, case manager, and other providers. Patients engage with outpatient providers before discharge wherever possible. The inpatient program is state-licensed and accredited by the joint commission. Mces is the exclusive provider of initial involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations in montgomery county. The mces inpatient program is nationally recognized for its ability to address any behavioral health emergency including those involving forensic issues. Mces incorporates the principles of the recovery model and trauma-informed care in its inpatient care. It recently created a "comfort room" to provide a calming setting for patients at risk of becoming upset and agitated. Mces also broadened its services to individuals with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders. -highlight: mces had over 2000 admissions of individuals with exacerbations of psychiatric disorders requiring inpatient treatment and stabilization. -highlight: an mces certified peer specialist co-leads a suicide prevention groups for inpatients with a member of the allied therapy department.

crisis residential program: the crisis residential program (crp) is an 8-bed, short-term care facility available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, which provides temporary residential treatment for adults who are at risk of an acute psychiatric crisis. It is an alternative to hospitalization with the overall goal of averting a crisis and assisting the individual in developing a plan and a support network to avoid crises in the future. The crp serves individuals falling into one or more of these categories: (i) those at risk of psychiatric hospitalization (i. E. , experiencing psychiatric decompensation); (ii) those in need of separation from a stressful environment to achieve psychiatric stability; and (iii) those who need assistance to establish and/or maintain community supports. All admissions are voluntary and those served must be capable of self-care and be in good health. The crp is state-licensed and accredited by the joint commission. It was the first such program in se pa. The mces crp program strives to provide the most home-like setting possible and practical for its services. An example is a vegetable garden that is tended by residents and provides both recreation and fresh produce over the summer months. -highlight: the mces crisis residential program had over 300 admissions of individuals who could avert a serious crisis or hospitalization with a brief stay.

psychiatric ambulance service: mces operates a unique dedicated psychiatric emergency medical service (ems). It is staffed by emergency medical technicians (emts) cross-trained as psychiatric technicians who can stabilize both medical and psychiatric emergencies. This service relieves local police and community ambulance services from the need to transport seriously mentally ill individuals to our facility and frees them for non-mental health emergencies in their communities. The mces ambulance also transports individuals who are to receive a court-ordered involuntary psychiatric evaluation at mces. Our psychiatric ems utilizes two basic life support ambulances for crisis response and a large suv for non-crisis patient transports. Mces emts assist in the delivery of inpatient care when not responding to off-site emergencies. -the mces psychiatric emergency medical service provided over 2000 transports of at-risk individuals to mces from homes and other settings.