The first of its kind in Connecticut, the Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing (EmPATH) Unit at Griffin Hospital is an innovative solution for adults in need of attentive, personalized care after experiencing a mental health crisis. Working in collaboration with our Emergency Department, the EmPATH Unit’s focuses on stabilizing individuals, starting appropriate treatment, providing therapeutic interventions, and connecting patients with ongoing outpatient mental healthcare and resources.
With a shortage of behavioral health services statewide, individuals in emotional crisis are often brought to hospital emergency departments (EDs) by crisis centers, law enforcement, and well-meaning family members. However, EDs are limited in their ability to provide the therapeutic care required, leaving many without the specialized support they urgently need. Patients in psychiatric crisis arrive at the Griffin Hospital ED for a physical evaluation before being transferred to the EmPATH in ensure their overall health and well-being receive exceptional care.
Griffin’s EmPATH unit is a specially designed and reserved environment focused on improving and expediting positive outcomes, featuring a large, open common space with high ceilings, natural light, exterior views and soothing décor. The unit includes sensory rooms with patient-controlled lighting and music, which will act as a safe space to help regulate emotions, earphones to listen to music and make private phone calls, tables for socializing, a nourishment station for snacks, a shower room, and physician consultation and family rooms for visitors.
Staffed with psychiatrists, social workers, and trained nurses, our EmPATH unit prioritizes rapid assessment and personalized care, aiming to stabilize patients within 24 hours and reduce the need for hospitalization. Our EmPATH unit routinely stabilizes 75% of patients experiencing psychiatric emergencies in less than 24 hours, reducing the need for hospitalization, and decreasing crisis readmissions by 25%, all while eliminating many of the traumatic aspects of traditional emergency psychiatric care.
Once discharged, patients in the EmPATH unit are referred to Griffin Health’s outpatient psychiatry services. Our Psychiatric Services offers intensive outpatient psychiatric programs in Shelton and Hamden, ensuring a continual, supportive response to patients behavioral health conditions. CLICK HERE to learn more about Griffin Health Behavioral Health & Addiction Services.