Today was the grand opening of the Health Crisis Extended Assessment Unit at Grand River Hospital.

It officially opens on Monday.

Director of Communications at Grand River Hospital, Mark Karjuluoto tells 570 News while the care in the emergency department is great, it may not be the best environment for those with a mental health problem, “So what we’ve done is build a unit right next to the emergency department that will have 6 rooms. And it will be that calmer, quieter place, that we think will be helpful for those in a mental health crisis.”

Those dealing with mental health is on the rise in the Region and Karjuluoto says they’re expecting to see about 3,000-4,000 patients using the unit a year, “Mental health within the hospital has also grown a fair bit over the last while. When we redeveloped our in-patient units for children, adolescents and adults, we’ve added beds there. And we’ve added about 50 new beds over at the Freeport site within the last couple of years, and those are to help people with longer term mental health needs.”

Karjuluoto points out that when people are dealing with a mental health crisis, they’re at their most vulnerable, “We’re hopeful that this kind of unit, and certainly the care that will go on, not only in emergency, but also in this new unit, are going to encourage people that if they have a mental illness and they need some help and they’re in a crisis, that hospital is a good place for them to go and that they’ll have the care that they need.”