LGH Social Worker Jessica Dragojevich (seated left)
prevides follow-up and referral services to adolescents who
come Into Emergency with emotional or mentai health
groblems. Although each one has very specific and
individual factors which lead to their “crisis point” the
majority of teens seen to date fave been girls aged 14-17
(60-70%). Mary may be suffering from depression and/or
have made a suicide attempt. Their crisis situations have
usualiy been brought on by one or more stress factors
associated with their family, school, peer group or other
close relationships.

Hospital Liaison Program
links teens to community
mental health services

More than 33,000 Lower Mainland children and youth suffer
from psychiatric disorders without receiving the treatment or
services they need according to the report, Children and Youth at
Risk: Towards a Mental Health Plan, released in November 1991.

<: Of the 36,000 youths identified as requiring mental! health
services, only 7-percent get the assistance they need. The report’s ff

recommendations include focusing resources on better
prevention, early intervention and counselling versus more costly
residential services. ;

“Lions Gate’s Mental Health Hospital Liaison Worker position
was developed in conjunction with our Child and Youth
Coordinator position,” says Director of the North Shore
Community Mental Health Centre, Rosalind Baltzer-Turje. “The
whole idea of this collaborative program is to better track the
needs of North.Shore children and youths and link those who
end up in the Emergency Department in a crisis situation with
the appropriate agencies and services in the community.”

“We started off with a general mandate to help connect these
kids with the services they need, and the program has evolved in
the directions where it’s most needed,” says LGH Social Worker,
Jessica Dragojevich,who was appointed Mental Health Hospital
Liaison Worker last Fall. “When | started last October, we started
from scratch. We knew there were kids coming into hospital and
‘needing services but we didn’t know how many and what their
_problerns and needs were.”

On average, 20-25 adolescents a month come into the
_Emergency Departinent with socio-emotional problems. Jessica’s
time and efforts are focused on crisis intervention, assessment,
referral and follow-up. “Right now, we’re seeing just the tip of
the iceberg. There are many more kids out there who don’t end
up in the Emergency Department and who may not know about
the community services available to them.

if they‘re admitted to hospital, | see them regularly and assist
with discharge planning. If they're not admitted to hospital, !
provide short-term follow up for the purpose of linking them up
with the community services they may need. If they want and
need assistance with referrals, then | can intervene on their
behalf. Families often find this initial phase after a crisis episode
overwhelming and difficult. | can help them through this and
hopefully point them in the right direction.”

Sunday, June 14, 1992 — North Shore News -— 44

MEOAt oO

from page 4

factors, particularly aging, will
require additiona! financial and
personnel resources in the future.

Hospitals are exceedingly complex,
highly regulated organizations,
which are expensive to operate.
The minimum rate for a standard
bed in a four-bed, noisy, hospital
ward is $484 per day. A bed in the
Intensive Care, Cardiac Care or
Special Care Unit starts at $3,000

‘per day. It is easy to see that an

expensive tax payer bill can result
in a very short period of time. Qur
challenge is to find better ways to
treat those patients who do not
require all the complex services of
an inpatient acute care bed.

There will always be trauma and
other critically ill patients requiring
intensive, acute care hospital
services. These patients must
continue to have quick access to
the sophisticated and expensive
technology as weil as diagnostic
and surgical skills which can only
be effectively and efficiently
provided in an acute care hospital
setting.

Health care providers and the
public, however, have to start
thinking of new approaches to the
delivery and use of health and
community care. Most of us are
familiar with the terms
“inpatients’’ and “outpatients’’ —
one requires an overnight stay in
hospital and one does not — but
both require individuals to come
into hospital for care. At Lions
Gate we are now re-evaluating

Norory ' 9 1-7 9 2

many programs in order to provide
better service to an evolving and
new Category of patient, the
“community patient’, whereby the
expertise and resources of the
haspital wil! be put towards
providing services to the
community in the community.

We have highlighted four such
areas in this year’s Annual Report.
The Maternity Early Discharge
Program and the Cardiac Follow-
Up Program have been
successfully providing community
service for a number of years. The
Child/Adolescent Crisis Intervention
Program has been initiated in the
past year, in conjunction with the
North Shore Community Mental
Health Centre, to provide urgently
needed services to our youth
population who may not require
hospitalization but rather linkages
and referrals to already established
and recognized community
programs. Lions Gate Hospital is
also in the fina! proposal stages
with community and government
agencies to establish a Home IV.
Program, whereby otherwise
healthy patients requiring long
term antibiotic treatment can
choose to receive this service in
the comfort and privacy of their
homes.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Smith
President and CEO