To meet the needs of an underserved community, the MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness at Community Hospital Long Beach has expanded its mental health services to include an outpatient psychiatric clinic and a partial hospitalization/intensive outpatient program.

“With the addition of a range of outpatient programs, Community Hospital Long Beach will provide a full spectrum of mental health services, allowing us to maximize our continuum of care to the Long Beach community,” says Krikor Jansezian, Ph.D., administrator, Community Hospital Long Beach.

The new outpatient psychiatric clinic will provide psychiatric evaluation and treatment to patients with mild to moderate psychiatric symptoms. Each patient’s needs will be continually assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of psychiatrists and social workers. Treatment may include medication management, individual, group, family and couples therapy.

In addition, Community Hospital Long Beach, in collaboration with Southern California TMS Center, offers Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) – a new non-invasive treatment for depression. TMS is used for the treatment of depression, where antidepressants have not been effective. TMS delivers focused magnetic pulses to stimulate areas of the brain that control mood. This treatment can be an alternative to medication, or can work in conjunction with medication.

For patients who are not severe enough to require inpatient hospitalization, but need more structure than outpatient therapy, the MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness launched the partial hospitalization/intensive outpatient program. The program is structured to facilitate the patients return to their maximum level of independence using group therapy focused on coping behavior, cognitive behavior, life skills, medication education, stress management and interpersonal relationship skills.

“If a patient has recently been admitted to an inpatient facility they’re a good candidate to continue on to the partial hospitalization program,” says Hopey Witherby, MSN/ED, RN, BC, clinical director, MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness, Community Hospital Long Beach. “The goal of the program is to reduce the patient’s chance of readmission to the hospital.”

The partial hospitalization program has several tracks designed to meet the goals of the individual patient. Most patients participate three to five days per week, usually for one to six weeks in group therapy. The groups are facilitated by experienced licensed clinical therapists, registered nurses, and music and art therapists.

“Our goal when establishing these programs was that for every inpatient program, we would also have a corresponding outpatient program, because the continuity of care from inpatient to outpatient is the only way to fully address the needs of our patients,” says Witherby.

The 28-bed psychiatric acute inpatient treatment program at the MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness provides a secure environment for the rapid assessment, intensive observation and treatment for acute psychiatric patients, who are experiencing severe symptoms that prevent them from being able to care for themselves and function safely in the community.

“By offering the community different levels of care, we’re able to transition patients to higher acuity or lower acuity within the MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness,” says Cliff Feldman, M.D., J.D. and M.F.S, medical director, MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness, Community Hospital Long Beach. “The patient can be transitioned from hospital-level care to outpatient care, and vice versa based on patient’s diagnosis and outcomes.”

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