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At left, Shelby Baptist Medical Center CEO David Wilson, Baptist Health Executive Director of Psychiatry Zelia Baugh and Dr. Shankar Yalamanchili, who serves as medical director of psychiatric services, welcome visitors to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Alabaster hospital's new 20-bed adult inpatient psychiatric ward on Friday, Jan. 9, 2015. (Martin J. Reed / mreed@al.com)
When Shelby Baptist Medical Center in Alabaster opens its 20-bed adult inpatient psychiatric unit on Jan. 19, the hospital is expecting the demand for services to be immediate.
"I would be surprised if we weren't full in five days," said Zelia Baugh, executive director of psychiatry for Baptist Health System.
At a celebration this morning for the imminent opening, officials said the new facility at the Alabaster hospital will serve as the only adult psychiatric unit in Shelby County and fill a void for needed services locally.
"What's been happening is they travel to Jefferson or other counties and not receive the treatment at home," Baugh said about patients needing psychiatric services.
Providing the service in Shelby County means helps improve the families' ability to be part of the treatment, she added. "The family definitely needs to be part of the recovery process for the patient," she said.
The psychiatric ward on the hospital's fifth floor that will accept patients 19 years and older is coming at a time when officials working in the judicial system are faced with challenges of providing services for people in need.
"On a global basis, there are way too few beds available for psychiatric services," Shelby County Probate Judge Jim Fuhrmeister said. "Sometimes we wait as long as five, six, seven, eight or nine days for a bed because the beds are so few."
By increasing the availability of beds for Shelby County, the people in need will be able to receive treatment sooner and no longer pose a threat to themselves or society, Fuhrmeister said about people getting committal orders in court.
"These are people that are allegedly mentally ill that are dangerous and remain in the community," he said. "We can do some things with law enforcement now that will be more efficient and cost effective" for Shelby County.
Fuhrmeister called the new service at Shelby Baptist Medical Center " a very important step in the right direction."
Often patients from Shelby County receive psychiatric treatment at Jefferson County institutions including Brookwood Medical Center, Trinity Medical Center and Hill Crest Behavioral Health.
"This is a big asset to us because of the simple fact that when the probate judge has a committal order, we have the task of transporting them" to Jefferson County for treatment, Shelby County Sheriff-elect John Samaniego said.
The treatment option locally will help his agency, the patients and their families, Samaniego said. "Just keeping them local and more accessible to their families is important," he said.
Shelby County District Attorney Jill Lee welcomes the new service in Shelby County. "For us, we see a number of people who commit criminal acts who actually have mental illness and they need help," she said.
"We have a Mental Health Court and hopefully with this facility and our Mental Health Court, we can drop some crime rates and help people who need help," Lee said. "That's our hope."