Fatima Hospital opens long-term behavioral health unit

NORTH PROVIDENCE – CharterCARE Health Partners and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital opened a long-term behavioral health unit on May 20. Beds will be immediately available to Medicaid-eligible patients in need of long-term psychiatric care.

The new 20-bed unit will offer an evidence-based care model that offers a variety of individual, family and group modules, which incorporates principles of rehabilitation and recovery. The multidisciplinary team – with expertise in psychiatry, nursing, milieu therapy and occupational therapy – are trained regularly in best practices in treating patients who will be treated there. The facility will include dedicated open community spaces and several acres of outdoor space for walking. Patients will learn to develop positive coping skills to strengthen their autonomy and individual decision-making.

“This new unit is a natural extension of our expanding center of excellence in integrated behavioral health,” Lester P. Schindel, CEO of CharterCARE Health Partners, said in a statement. “Combined with our coordinated regional care model, we can have a significant impact on providing the right level of care at the right place and at a lower cost of delivery.”

CharterCARE reported that Rebecca Plonsky, CharterCARE vice president of integrated behavioral health, partnered with the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Disabilities and Hospitals, and the Rhode Island Department of Health to obtain the approvals needed to create the dedicated long-term unit.

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“Our ongoing focus to expand access and improve quality of care requires partnerships like this,” Anya Rader Wallack, Rhode Island’s Medicaid director, said in a statement. “We are committed to strengthening our public health care system to better integrate physical and behavioral health care. We look forward to working with CharterCARE as we build additional capacity for vital psychiatric care that our members rely on.”

“Our new long-term unit will ensure a patient-focused, safe environment that will promote patient recovery efforts and improve clinical outcomes,” said Plonsky, who noted that the unit’s multidisciplinary team has been specially trained to provide evidence-based care to adult patients with complex psychiatric diagnoses who often have co-occurring and co-morbid medical conditions.

CharterCARE anticipates working closely with community partners to coordinate care for patients in need of long-term behavioral health services, said Schindel.

For more information or to make a referral, contact CharterCARE’s Central Access program at (401) 456-3500.

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