Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has hired mental health emergency services nurse Kelsey Wagner to serve the Sunshine Coast.
The health authority was originally looking for someone to start in the role “as soon as possible” in June of last year, but VCH decided to wait for Wagner.
“We did interviews during the summer, but we had to wait until September for Kelsey to start in her position because she was working at Sumac Place and we had a nursing shortage there at the time,” said Susann Richter, manager of Sunshine Coast Mental Health and Addictions with VCH.
“Kelsey was such a good fit for the position that it was the best solution.”
Since starting in September, Wagner has been busy working Monday to Friday in the emergency department and psychiatric unit at Sechelt Hospital as well as attending some calls with Sunshine Coast RCMP.
“We’ve been working collaboratively with the emergency department, the RCMP and the inpatient psychiatric unit to reduce emergency department wait-times for patients and police and to shorten the length of stay in the hospital,” Richter said.
“Since Kelsey’s arrival, we are beginning to see some good results in these efforts thanks to rapid assessment and follow-up.”
In the future Wagner will spend more time with police as VCH works to develop a program similar to Car 87 in Vancouver, which sees mental health nurses regularly ride along to calls that involve mental illness.
“The RCMP asked us to wait to develop Kelsey’s role with them until their new liaison officer, Kyle Hrynyk, starts. Kyle is starting this week, so we will be meeting with RCMP next week to define the partnership,” Richter said.
“Our initial focus was to have Kelsey work in the emergency department to create better pathways for mental health and addiction clients coming to hospital. This benefits first responders including police, as it can reduce their wait times when they bring people to the emergency room.
“In the meantime, Kelsey has attended calls with police to help do assessments. We’re looking forward to our meeting next week to start the process of working more with police in the community.”
