(Western Mass News – Glenn Kittle) This coming Monday, local leaders and healthcare officials will be cutting the ribbon for the Valley Springs Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke.
The brand new, 4-story, 122 thousand square foot facility will admit those suffering from mental health issues.
CEO of valley spring Roy Sasenaraine tells western mass news patients with mental health emergencies who visit current hospital emergency rooms often struggle to get the care they need.
“It means access, expanded capabilities for a community, and really to be an additional resource for the community as well,” said Sasenaraine.
The goal of this new hospital is to get people admitted and treated within the same day…
“You skip a whole piece of that. You come to us, you get triaged, you get assessed and we find you a place within our hospital immediately at that point. We can check you in that same day. which is the goal.” said Sasenaraine.
It also means patients get to stay close to home.
State Senator John Velis tells Western Mass News, a third of the patients who seek behavioral health treatment at Baystate Medical Center are sent out of western Mass.
This new facility cuts down on the long trip for the patients and their loved ones.
“People want to be around the people they love, their support network. if they don’t have any of that, they want to be around the area that they are from. That is a really big deal.” said Velis.
However, with 150 beds at this facility, Velis hopes valley springs will have the staff to take care of those patients.
He tells Western Mass News, in conversations, he’s had with hospital officials, they’re continuing the hiring process to make sure the hospital is staffed and ready to go.
“Knowing from being here this past week during the tour, they are hiring and some of these beds are going to be DMH beds. so, it’s kind of this collaboration between obviously Valley Springs, Baystate, and the Department of Mental Health. so, there are going to be forensic psychiatric beds for the Department of Mental Health.” said Velis.
Sasenaraine adds they’re also recruiting people from out of state and partnering with local college medical programs to get students in the clinical rotations and secure potential employment opportunities for them in the future.