BENNINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is in the middle of a major expansion to its emergency department. A key component of that is the emergency crisis area.
It’s a $30 million upgrade. The 12,000-square-foot addition includes five crisis beds dedicated to those experiencing a mental emergency.
“The behavior health, mental health crisis beds are imperative. They are the safety net for our community,” said Jill Maynard, the nursing director for the emergency department.
In each new room is a media wall. The technology, called CoWin, dubs itself as the world’s leading de-escalation solution for facilities with the highest security level. It allows patients to play music and games, draw and look at soothing images with just the touch of the finger. For patients’ safety, pens and pencils are not allowed in these rooms.
“They seem to cool, they seem to relax. They focus on this and they are much more approachable,” said Brenda Mattison, a licensed nursing assistant who has worked in the medical center’s secure unit for about a decade. “It gives them that sense of I’m in control of this.”
“We are able to manage different conditions,” Maynard said. “Patients that are acutely psychotic and they need to focus, the word search has been really helpful with that. Patients that are agitated and angry and really just need to move their body, there is a game called whack-a-mole.”
She says the media, along with other new additions to the rooms like windows, are already proving to be a success. In the last year, the use of restraints here is down more than 60%.
“You can’t hurt me with it, you can’t hurt yourself with it and you can control it,” Maynard said.
Health care officials say ultimately, more beds in the proper setting is the best way to address the mental health crisis as a whole, but they say innovations like this help to fill the gaps.
“It gives them back some freedom to do what they want to do when they want to do it on their time,” Mattison said.
The complete renovation is expected to be done by early fall.