24-bed Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit Now Open

Providence Regional Medical Center’s 24-bed Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit on Colby Campus is now open. This unique Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit is dedicated to care for patients with primary behavioral health needs coupled with complex medical conditions.

Staffed with a multidisciplinary team of behavioral health experts – including psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, mental health specialists, a recreation therapist and hospital medical experts – the unit provides psychiatric assessment, medication, therapies and coordinated inpatient clinical services to address the medical and behavioral health needs for its patients.

Safety First

The Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit has been specifically designed with the safety and comfort of patients in mind. Unique features include:

• Ligature resistant features: Secured soap dispensers, easy-release toilet paper holders, floor-mounted beds, collapsible waste baskets, blinds inside the window glass, removable foam bathroom doors -- all aspects of amenities, furniture, and equipment have been chosen to meet rigorous behavioral health safety standards to reduce the risk for self-harm.
• Trauma informed care design: Nature photos, calming color palette, quiet rooms for calming, group rooms for therapies (including art therapy). A new enclosed outdoor space will be added soon.
• Special room on-site for court hearings: With a special entrance to the on-site court room, patients can stay on the unit while attending online court with their lawyer.
• Designated beds: Six of the 24 beds will be for patients on longer involuntary treatment holds (90 to 180 days).

Whole Person Care

The Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit is designed to care for the whole person in a safe environment. For example, a patient in behavioral health crisis who also has kidney disease, could be admitted to this unit for behavioral health intervention and therapies while caregivers who specialize in nephrology and kidney dialysis will work in tandem with the behavioral health providers to care for this patient’s medical needs, as well.

Living our Mission

Most patients will be referred into the Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit through the emergency department and the Behavioral Health Urgent Care, which is an outpatient clinic for those in behavioral health crisis.

With the opening of this new Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit, Providence is living its Mission to care for the most vulnerable in our community. Providence is deeply committed to increasing access to behavioral health care while eliminating the stigma surrounding this disease.