Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is hiring a mental health emergency services nurse for the Coast -– with a start date of “as soon as possible” – to better serve local patients with mental health needs.
“The main function of this person will be to liaison with the emergency department to help with assessment of people coming in presenting with symptoms of mental illness and addiction,” said Susann Richter, manager for mental health and addictions on the Sunshine Coast.
Currently the role is filled sporadically by nurses, mental health workers and psychiatrists at the hospital.
“But this would be a Monday to Friday consistent presence,” Richter said.
“It will help when people come in because we’ll have a faster identification of what’s going on for that person and what type of service they really need.”
The new nurse will also help transition people from emergency to the inpatient unit and take care of short-term case management to help patients transition back to home life once released.
“The transition back home can be a difficult time for people,” Richter noted.
VCH is also working with the RCMP to use the new role in a way that has proved successful in other areas.
“We want to develop something similar to what’s called Car 87 in Vancouver, so that when the police are called out to certain, more acute calls in the community that may involve mental illness, then this nurse can ride along with the police,” Richter said.
“I think it will be a really good partnership that will help both the police and Vancouver Coastal Health.”
If the new nurse has any time left after completing those duties, VCH would also like to develop a walk-in crisis service at the community mental health office.
“That is a role we’ll be developing, but we’ll have to see how much time the other pieces are taking and see how much of that walk-in service we can provide,” Richter said.
The mental health emergency services nurse role is a new one for the Coast and Richter’s pleased that VCH found funding for the position.
“It was really in response to needs that have been expressed by different stakeholders and different folks in the community,” Richter said.
The job was posted on May 17 and there are currently a few applicants in the running.
“We hopefully will be hiring someone within the next couple of weeks,” Richter said.
