The long called for makeover of the Young People’s Unit at Mount Carmel Hospital, in Attard, began this week and the new therapeutic unit will be opening its doors to adolescents by summer.
The news comes after the government last year announced it was looking for a place to house young people with mental health – not behavioural – problems, to end the heavily criticised practice of addressing both at once.
Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne yesterday told this newspaper no effort had been spared to ensure that mental health services were not pushed aside.
“A number of initiatives are under way to give equal priority to mental and physical health, like the relocation of the YPU to premises that can afford facilities which are more conducive to the wholesome well-being of these young adolescent patients,” he said.
At the moment, there are two main buildings for young people that form part of Mount Carmel Hospital. One accommodates male youths and the other is known as Half Way House. The latter will be transformed into the new YPU and people from the adjacent building will be relocated there.
At the new facility there will be a pre-admission system to screen patients and only admit young people with mental issues such as bipolar disorder, depression and autism with aggression issues.
The new unit, which will accept patients aged between 13 and 18, will have separate dormitories for male and female patients and a recreational area, including open-air spaces. Structural work started on Monday and should be completed in May.
Meanwhile, consultant Nigel Camilleri has been recruited to buttress the clinical care aspect of the overhaul.
Dr Camilleri specialised in child and adolescent psychiatry in the UK, where he spent two years as a consultant.
He has worked with adolescents in acute and forensic wards but also with children who need community psychiatry.
“The plan is to change the outdated system at the young people’s unit, which is set up in an asylum format in an old house,” Dr Camilleri said.
Phased out in the 1980s in the UK, asylums were hospitals where people with mental health issues would be segregated from the rest of the community. The new unit will instead be an acute ward for the treatment of young people without alienating them.
The indoor environment of acute wards is more therapeutic than that of asylums. Rooms are more colourful and better lit, compared to cold and uninviting asylum wards, while windows have unbreakable glass panes instead of bars.
Acute wards also have a recreational capacity and the area behind the unit in Attard could be transformed into a multisport facility for young people with behavioural problems to vent their feelings instead of acting out under lock and key.
Dr Camilleri is also proposing increasing the nursing staff at the unit and employing a key-worker approach, where a nurse could focus on one or two patients to build a therapeutic relationship.
Asked about the importance of seeking treatment at a young age, Dr Camilleri said three-quarters of mental disorders start before age 25 and early identification and treatment lead to better longer-term outcomes.
Mental illness affects one in four young people aged between 15 and 25. If untreated, it can lead to substance abuse, road traffic accidents and suicide and is the major cause for longer-term medical disorders and higher mortality.
Mental disorders are often, in fact, called ‘the chronic diseases of the young’.