Commemorating One Year of Psychiatric Emergency Services

The following is a press release from Bozeman Health on Dec. 7.

Bozeman Health is proud to commemorate one year of providing Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) in support of the regional behavioral health continuum. Ensuring a robust mental healthcare safety net is available to all residents and visitors of Southwest Montana requires collaborative work between many community partners including law enforcement, clinicians, peer support specialists, service providers, family members, and others.

Located adjacent to the emergency department at Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center, the PES area is designed to deliver an enhanced level of care that provides a calming and therapeutic environment for patients experiencing acute behavioral health needs in our community. The City of Bozeman supported construction of PES through a pandemic relief grant. PES can serve up to five patients at a time and comprises two single occupancy rooms and a three-patient community milieu area.

Despite the challenging post-COVID workforce environment, Bozeman Health has been able to effectively recruit a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team of over 35 individuals made up of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, crisis intervention specialists, behavioral health specialists, nurse navigators, registered nurses, patient care technicians, and peer support specialists across the care system and care sites.

Bozeman Health services now support substantial portions of the care continuum - from integrated behavioral health in women’s services and NICU, outpatient psychiatric services, and PES. On average, Bozeman Health teams care for 30-35 behavioral health patients across the care system each day. The number of patients presenting to our emergency department in a behavioral health crisis is growing. Most patients cared for by our PES teams sought care due to suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, or psychosis. Thanks to our PES care team, the number of patients who require care out of town at the state hospital each month has gone down by nearly 70%.

Bozeman Health will continue to support community needs as we recruit to support integrated behavioral health development in more of our clinics, persist in our recruitment of a child psychiatrist, and continue to partner with regional youth inpatient service specialists to provide this very specialized care to the highest clinical expectations.

Planning, design, construction, and workforce recruitment are ongoing for our 14-bed adult inpatient psychiatric unit, which will be located inside Deaconess Regional Medical Center on the first floor Madison Wing. Construction completion is estimated for late 2024 and opening planned in 2025. These new services are possible only because of our dedicated care team members who demonstrate each day, year-round, an enduring commitment to meet the behavioral health needs of our community. Please join us in sharing gratitude for our many community members and service providers who keep our collective safety net strong as we continue to build a more resilient continuum of care to better support the mental health needs of our region.