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Dr. Herlo Coetzer – ED Consultant, Mairead O’Sullivan – A/Assistant Director of Nursing, Cathy O’Sullivan – Assistant Director of Nursing, Gerard Sheehan – ED Crisis Nurse, Dr. Maura Young – Executive Clinical Director, Kerry Mental Health Services, Declan Cronin – Assistant Director of Nursing (MHS) and Tess O’Donovan A/COO, South/South West Hospital Group at the opening of the new mental health assessment room at the Emergency Department of UHK. Photo By : Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD
CORK Kerry Community Healthcare Mental Health Services have opened a new mental health assessment room within the emergency department of University Hospital Kerry.
The assessment room will be a confidential and therapeutic setting for anyone presenting to UHK in a mental health crisis. The room is a joint initiative between CKCH Mental Health Services and healthcare professionals from UHK.
It aims to create a separate, calm space which will be used by Clinical Nurse Specialists in Self Harm who already provide a seven-day service (from 8am to 8am), offering a rapid response to people presenting to Emergency Departments with self-harm and suicidal ideation.
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The room will also be used by the psychiatric doctor on call to assess patients presenting to ED with a mental health emergency.
Twenty-four hour mental health assessment is provided by consultant psychiatrists and non consultant hospital doctors within the department.
Dr Maura Young Executive Clinical Director Kerry Mental Health Service said: “I am delighted that people presenting to University Hospital Kerry in a mental health crisis can now meet with mental health professionals in a confidential and therapeutic setting. It is my hope that the new mental health assessment room will improve the experience and will benefit all those who access the service in the Emergency Department in University Hospital Kerry.”
