A new path toward a place of hope
Mental health Day Hospital has already helped 400 Albertans
Having lived with depression for years, one of the few times Lawna Anderson said she felt happy was when she thought about ending it all.
The 37-year-old couldn’t remember a day where she wasn’t depressed or had suicidal thoughts and even attempted to end her life a few times.
Anderson, who is now an addictions counsellor, found herself unemployed for a long period of time and began to lose hope that her situation could change for the better.
She started to think there was only one way out.
“When you decide to kill yourself and you make the plan and you’re going to carry it through, there’s an elation that happens,” she said.
“I was like, ‘This is the happiest I have felt in a long time.’ I was petrified that I would never feel it again. That suicide was the only way to feel happy.”
Anderson turned to counselling and psychiatrists but nothing seemed to work.
Eventually, her psychiatrist told her about Alberta Health Service’s Day Hospital in Edmonton, which launched in January.
The 21-day intensive program is geared toward helping those with mental health issues and don’t require hospitalization, but need more help than what’s available in the community. The program allows patients to receive the care they need and then leave to go home the same day.
Anderson said the program gave her hope.
“I was really optimistic that there was something different,” she said. “When it comes to mental health, there really isn’t anything out there for treatment other than going to a psychiatrist and getting meds and going to a counsellor once a week.”
‘GETTING BACK TO A NORMAL LIFE’
Anderson said being able to sit down in a room with others who were going through the same thing as her really helped. She told the story about how she felt when she thought about planning to end her life and found many others felt the same way.
“It wasn’t this shameful, horrible thing to have this fear,” she said. “Going through the program, getting back to a normal life and getting back to a normal routine and a feeling a purpose again, I started to feel those feelings without suicidality and I hadn’t for four years. It was quite astounding.”
While the program didn’t cure Anderson of her depression, she said she now deals with it much better.
Anderson wanted to share her story to let others know who are experiencing depression too that there are options.
400 HELPED THIS YEAR
The Day Hospital services the entire Edmonton Zone, which stretches from Fort Saskatchewan to Wabamun Lake, and is located in Alberta Hospital.
Since launching at the start of the year, 400 people have gone through the program.
Shelley Daubert, director of adult acute services with addiction and mental health, said the program is a more cost-effective alternative to provide in-patient care for people who are acutely ill. She said the most common reason for people coming into the program was for depression.
Someone who is acutely suicidal wouldn’t have many options for treatment and assessment other than going to an emergency department, Daubert said.
“I don’t think anybody actually wants to go to the hospital,” she said. “With that said, we’re not a replacement for people who truly need a hospital-level of care. We’re not a replacement, we’re a complement to that service.”
While the program can last for 21 days, Daubert said that’s the average for some, with other patients only going for two or three days. The program still requires a referral from a doctor but once a patient is in the system they don’t have to go through that step again.
Daubert said the referral can also come from a psychiatrist.
She expects the number of patients to increase as more people become aware of the program.