This winter I visited the new emergency facilities at VJH a couple of times and was impressed with the new space and the excellent care I received. Being in a shiny new area with great equipment and everything clean and bright was really appreciated. I have heard enthusiastic raves about maternity and other areas.
The money required to complete the two other floors is a bit mind boggling if you look at beds gained. It will be state-of-the-art facilities to support the care and wellbeing of the patients who will seek help there.
The amount of money needed for hospitals is phenomenal and is a bottomless pit. VJH, like any hospital in Canada, is always in need of money.
One campaign I would like to get behind when their turn comes, which I hope is sooner than later, is the improvements needed to the psychiatric ward. This space is in real need of improvements — the rooms, washroom facilities, showers, patient rooms, common areas — and seriously needs help.
I was very sad when I saw this area as I would find it difficult to be a patient there.
Think about what kind of space you would like to be in if you were severely depressed or had a mental illness that required a hospital stay. What kind of environment would you want to aid in your recovery? Private rooms, light colours, a few nice walk-in showers, a family room to visit with your loved ones, an outdoor space? They do have an outdoor space, which has great potential.
This is not a reflection of the people working there, who do their best. This area is just not at the top of the list, and I am sure their day will come. I wonder if the lower priority in some ways reinforces the stigma of mental illness.
Many local families have received services from this department and will continue to do so. Many would love to see improvements made and I am hopeful that when called upon will rally behind a campaign to improve this area of the hospital. This will in another way help to bring mental illness into the forefront.
Mental illness is an illness like others. I look forward to the day where we can as families and a society be more open in our understanding and support. We can discuss our surgeries and various treatments with our friends and family but we rarely talk openly about our meds for our mental illness, our depression or therapies.
More people are being open in their discussions of their own mental illness and this is welcome. If we are going to encourage people to seek help and support, we better make certain we are backing up that campaign with the services and supports needed.
The way I see it, a newer psychiatric area would go a long way in supporting those with mental illness.
Michele Blais is a Vernon Realtor and a longtime columnist with The Morning Star, who writes on a variety of issues, appearing every other Sunday.
