Innovative New Unit for Patients with Severe Mental Illness Opens at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
The new Extended Care Unit focuses on rehabilitation and reintegrating patients back into the community The new unit at Elmhurst is the third unit of its kind in the system; the first is at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and opened in 2020 and the second opened at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County in 2023
Dec 18, 2024
Today NYC Health + Hospitals announced the opening of a new, long stay unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst for patients with severe and persistent mental illness. The new Extended Care Unit can house up to 20 patients at a time and offers psychopharmacological treatment, rehabilitative activities including music and art therapy, reading, and various exercises. Patients are assigned tasks that support interpersonal communication and skill development, such as doing their own laundry or curating a display of patient artwork. As part of a patient’s treatment, staff may accompany patients for trips to the grocery store and the subway to practice re-acclimating to living and thriving in the community despite their mental illness. Staff also assist patients who are experiencing homelessness with securing housing upon discharge.
The unit at Elmhurst is the third Extended Care Unit (ECU) in the system and builds on the success of our two initial ECUs. The first opened at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in 2020 and has served nearly 250 patients since launch. The second opened at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County in 2023 and has served about 40 patients since launch.
Extended Care Units are an innovative model of inpatient care that provide care for patients with serious mental illness who have been historically disconnected from health and social services. For these New Yorkers, our ECUs provide more intensive inpatient treatment coupled with social learning, behavioral paradigms, and person-centered rehabilitation. Within the ECU there is a focus on comprehensive discharge and aftercare planning, with the patient’s own goals informing treatment and maximizing opportunities to use new skills for meaningful community reintegration.
Admission to the Extended Care Unit is voluntary. Patients can stay up to 120 days. On average, patients stay in the Extended Care Unit for 90 days, compared to an average 21-day stay for patients in acute psychiatric inpatient care.
“Since the start of our administration, we’ve worked to reach people suffering the consequences of untreated severe mental illness,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “The addition of this Extended Care Unit is another key step in building the continuum of care we need to empower people on the hard road to recovery. The ECU will offer a significant amount of time for treatment, transition planning, and skills building around activities of daily living. Thank you to the team at Elmhurst for doing this critical work to help their fellow New Yorkers in need.”
“This investment in additional resources for inpatient mental health patients dealing with severe illness is greatly needed in our community,” said Helen Arteaga Landaverde, PhD, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. “We hope that by providing extended care in a secure and supportive environment, we can give our patients additional time to heal as they journey towards recovery.”
“With the introduction of this new unit, the Department of Psychiatry at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst is thrilled to expand its care modalities, solidifying its position as one of the most comprehensive behavioral health services for the community of Queens and New York City,” said Vladimir Gasca, MD, Director of Behavioral Health at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. “We are incredibly grateful to be collaborating closely with Dr. Omar Fattal, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and System Chief of Behavioral Health, along with his exceptional team at Central Office. Together, they are spearheading this remarkable mission to enhance services for the entire city.”
“This new Extended Care Unit is an innovative model of inpatient care for New Yorkers with serious mental illness who have been historically disconnected from health and social services,” said NYC Health + Hospitals System Chief for Behavioral Health Omar Fattal, MD, MPH. “ECUs provide more intensive inpatient treatment coupled with social learning, behavioral paradigms, and person-centered rehabilitation. This model works and has resulted in connecting 50% of our ECU patients to permanent housing and significantly reducing their ED visits within the first 6 months and beyond following a stay in an ECU. Building on the success of units at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and Kings County, we are proud to open this crucial new unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst to further expand our capacity to serve our fellow New Yorkers in need of treatment.”
“We are thrilled to be opening an Extended Care Unit and to provide intensive treatment, combined with an array of rehabilitative activities to patients struggling with severe mental illness in Queens,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Director of Extended Care Unit, Carl Goodrich, PhD. “We are eager to follow the excellent examples of our colleagues at Bellevue and Kings County Hospital as they continue to operate these long stay units with remarkable success. We look forward to working collaboratively with our ECU patients and supporting them on their recovery journey to stable housing and back into treatment in the communities where they live.”
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health in New York City. The system provides almost 60% of behavioral health services citywide serving over 75,000 patients annually across emergency, inpatient, and outpatient care.
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About NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, part of the NYC Health + Hospitals health care system, is the major tertiary care provider in the borough of Queens. The 545-bed hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center, an Emergency Heart Care Station, a Thrombectomy Capable Stroke Receiving Center, a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Center of Excellence and a 911-Receiving Hospital. It is a premiere health care organization for several specialties, including surgery, cardiology, women’s health, pediatrics, rehabilitation medicine, renal services, and mental health services. Last year, the hospital received close to 700,000 ambulatory care visits and over 130,000 emergency room visits. The hospital has been nationally-ranked and named as a “Best Regional Hospital” by US News and World Report, and has been noted for providing exceptional care in key areas, including Heart Failure, Heart Attack, Stroke, Hip Fracture, Kidney Failure, Orthopedics, Pneumonia, and COPD. Stay connected on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElmhurstHosp.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.