A New Era in Behavioral Health Care

Jan. 13—The Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital recently unveiled their newly renovated behavioral health unit in an 'Open House' ceremony on Thursday. Local citizens, dignitaries, and officials learned about all the upgrades made to the medical unit and toured the new facilities. LCRH Director of Behavior Health Mandy Lynch addressed the guest about the unit's upgrades and improvements.

"We made an investment into our behavioral health unit to improve it from ligature standpoint," stated Lynch. "We did renovations to improve the safety for behavioral health patients. And from that it turned into a pretty extensive multi-million dollar renovation to improve the aesthetics of the unit, to improve the flow of the unit, and the safety of the unit."

All of the furniture in the behavioral health unit is approved furniture, which is a heavier furniture that can't be easily thrown or moved. If there are ligature points, where somebody could harm themselves, they have been removed or altered in such a way to eliminate that risk.

LCRH went back with furniture that is approved for behavioral health patients. They put in comfortable furniture where the patients spend a majority of their time in the common area watching television and playing games. There is also two large chalkboards on adjacent walls where patients are allowed to write and draw to express themselves.

The new furnishings are aesthetically pleasing and comfortable for the patients. They added a lot of tables where they could have more interaction with each other in a common area. They also changed an entrance between the two units, which is an adult unit and a geriatric unit. Prior, there was not a proper entrance to the adult unit, so patients had to enter an area and go through the geriatric unit to get to the adult unit. The renovation fixed that, so that they have distinct ways that patients can enter their respective units. That keeps the geriatric patients always separated from the adult patients, and there's never interaction between the two.

LCRH Assistant Administrator Kevin Albert explained the timeline of the upgrades and explained how COVID set the renovations back from what was originally planned.

"The original plans started in 2018 and then we were delayed with COVID," stated Albert. "We got final approval to start at the end of 2021 and then we started the project on April 15 of 2022. We did the project in two phases. On the north side of the unit went from April until August. Then we started the second phase, which is the south side. That wrapped up towards the end of October. We were able to open up by Nov. 15 of 2022 and move all of our patients into the new areas."

According to Lynch, they didn't change their behavioral health staffing matrix, just the overall aesthetics have changed. The unit has 22 adult beds on the adult side and seven geriatric beds. They can care for up to 28 adult patients. Originally they had an area that was an overflow unit where they weren't able to house patients in that unit consistently. They now have the ability to do that, which gives them the extra beds.

The renovation of the unit used a very calming palette of colors. LCRH increased the group space, so they can do more groups. They increased the activity space so that they have a much better place for the patients to meet and do their activities. They upgraded the rooms with new beds. In general, the rooms were upgraded to make them just a little bit calmer and more pleasing.

The restrooms were completely renovated and eliminated part of the ligature risk. Any exposed pipes, like on the toilets at the bottom, that could be a ligature point were replaced. The showers were refurbished with new head units. Everything on that floor has been renovated just to prevent any potential harm to patients or others. Anything that can be a harm to others has been removed to make it a very safe place for all of the patients. Whether you're a patient or you're a partner of a patient in the unit, you're going be safe in that area.

Lynch explained how patients are admitted to the LCRH behavioral health unit.

"The behavioral services is for patients who have to require 24-hour level of care need for nursing," Lynch explained. "It is for patients who are depressed, patients with bipolar disorders, suicidal patients, patients who have anxiety disorders or patients who have failed an outpatient treatment. So they maybe have a counselor or they've been treated and they have not been able to adapt to the medication changes that were provided to them. They need a safer environment where they can be monitored by a nurse and do group therapy with counselors on a routine basis than would qualified."

"The patients have to be willing and agreeable to sign in to our unit," Lynch continued. "If the patient's agreeable to care or the physician feels like they need to place them on a hold to stay for three days while we evaluate their care, we do that."

A behavioral patient's stay is three to five days on the unit. Patients are admitted, they meet with a nurse and we do a nursing assessment. Then they meet with the psychiatrist and a counselor, and the behavioral services staff will formulate our plan of care. And it's that working plan of care that determines what the goals are for discharge and how long the patient would stay.

Thursday's Behavioral Health Open House at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital was a way for the staff to explain what they provided for their patients and the improvement of their services.

"We wanted to get back out to the public that our mission statement is making communities healthier," Lynch stated. "We know that poor access to mental health is detrimental to the community. You have an increased risk of homelessness, of substance abuse and suicide in patients that can't access mental health care. We wanted to use this opportunity to rebrand, if you will, and to let everybody know what we have, what our unit is, who we can take care of, and how to access care."

"Our staff of nurses and counselors, on average, have 30 years experience with each individual person," Lynch vaunted. "Most of our staff have been here at least 25 to 30 years, and I think that speaks volumes. We have a very knowledgeable, dedicated, and a caring staff."

Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital CEO Robert Parker was enthusiastic to unveil the hospital's new upgrades, but he was also happy to communicate his appreciation to the first responders, law enforcement, fire, and all those groups that work closely with the hospital staff on a day-to-day basis.

Standing in front of Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones, Somerset City Police Chief William Hunt, Somerset Mayor Alan Keck, District Judge Katie Slone and District Judge BJ Hardy, Parker gave his heartfelt gratitude for not only protecting our local community but their commitment to the behavioral health in the local area and their cooperative work with Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital.

"The relationship between first responders, law enforcement, fire, all those groups, in conjunction with our hospital has been absolutely indispensable, needed, and required," Parker stated. "They have been wonderful and are so brave. They're the first on the scene and they have been the first in the middle of situations."

"In terms of activities we see in our community, in terms of the safety issues in our community and how we're taking care of our patients in our community, and how we address different crises in our community, law enforcement, fire, first responders, and EMS personnel are paramount," Parker added. "Those are just indispensable folks that we're so proud to be working with."

"What's wonderful about our relationship, these people are our friends," Parker said. "We see them in the community. We know them at a personal level. And so to see that bond within Somerset and Pulaski County and our region just makes it even more special because we can rely on each other. They take great care of our hospital and our hospital team. We feel very safe when they're on the job."

District Judge Katie Slone has worked closely with Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital and behavioral health needs for many years with her work in the legal courtroom. She was very appreciative of LCRH's ongoing commitment to treating behavioral health.

"Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital's commitment to excellent behavioral health care is incredibly important because we see so many people that are in court and a lot of people that aren't in court that are there for behavioral health type issues," Slone said. "I think it's incredibly important. We see people coming in a lot and saying that this person is presenting a danger to themselves or others. It is reassuring to know the Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital is equipped to handle these situations and patients."

To learn more about the Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital's behavioral health unit and their extensive upgrades view videos at https://youtu.be/5DkbHHe7fBk or https://www.lakecumberlandhospital.com/behavioral-health.

Contact Steve Cornelius at scornelius@somerset-kentucky.com.