Acadia Hospital Responds to the Demand for Psychiatric Care Across the State of Maine
Responding to the overwhelming need for appropriate psychiatric care facilities in the State of Maine, Northern Light Health’s Acadia Hospital is moving forward with a new Children and Adolescent inpatient building, renovations to their existing inpatient building and expanding outpatient programs.
“Sadly, at any one time, up to 30 people are stuck in Maine’s emergency rooms waiting for a psychiatric bed. Half of those are adolescents. The state simply does not have enough beds to accommodate them,” stated Scott Oxley, President of Northern Light Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine.
As the study of mental health evolves so must the space that services are offered in. Once the standard, double occupancy rooms now pose restrictions to facilities, often resulting in bed counts being cut in half. Progressive standards of care require individual rooms. Acadia’s new adolescent inpatient unit will be able to accommodate more patients, increasing single-occupancy patient rooms from 60 to 100. Beyond additional beds, the new unit offers patients, parents and staff spaces for group activities, therapy sessions and secure access to the outdoors.
The new building design serves as a bold vision for the future of mental healthcare in Maine. The reimagined psychiatric hospital will support Acadia’s goal of strengthening and deepening services and research efforts, supporting the mental health of the aging population; expanding outreach across the state to meet the challenges of youth suicide, bullying, and substance abuse; and growing the dedicated team of mental healthcare professionals who are proud to serve at Acadia.