Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit marks one year in Sikeston, Mo.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Since opening a year ago this month, the Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston has served more than 500 patients in need.

"We really are seeing a lot of patients from this area, and it's working and there's a need for the Unit," said Sarah Garner, behavioral health community liaison for Missouri Delta.

The 15-bed unit officially opened May 13, 2020, to provide specialized services closer to home for Southeast Missouri residents, and during that time has received over 515 admissions, according to Garner.

"And that's over 500 patients in a pandemic," Garner said. "Each month of last couple months, our admissions are increasing more and more, so next year, I expect that number to be much higher."

The state-of-the art unit in Sikeston was designed to treat adolescents between the ages of 12-17 who are dealing with various behavioral health conditions, Garner said. The unit provides intensive inpatient psychiatric treatment for adolescents who are experiencing behavioral and emotional problems in a safe, secure and educational environment.

With May also being Mental Health Awareness Month, Garner wanted to remind residents of the Unit's existence and purpose in Sikeston.

"We manage the acute situation of the kid that's in crisis, keep them out of the environment, keep them in a safe place and assess what's going on with them," Garner said.

Conditions treated include: mood disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideations, ADHD, depression, development and behavioral disorders, substance use and co-occurring disorders and psychotic disorder.

One big benefit for the patients is the group sessions, Garner said.

"They have four group sessions a day -- with activities, social workers or the nursing staff, and it's a great opportunity for kids to hear from each other," Garner said. "So man times they think: 'I'm an island. I'm the only one that has any issues like this.' And then they come and are around other kids and they see they're not the only one."

While the facility and staff were ready to open a year ago, they hadn't anticipated having to do it in the middle of a pandemic.

"We had planned on doing an in-person open house so referral sources could come in and tour the unit and meet our staff, and all of that thrown out the window because we were in the middle of the pandemic," Garner recalled. "The Unit's opening became a virtual launch, and there were lots of phone calls. Zoom calls with juvenile offices and children and youth's division and counseling centers became my life because everyone's doors were shut. Then I was trying to reach out to all the different hospitals around the states. I'd email the information out and follow up with phone calls and then follow up again."

The Unit is filling a void, Garner said.

"The majority of our patients -- about 75% -- are the more regional residents from around the area, which is what we want to see," Garner said.

Before the Unit opened in Sikeston, if an adolescent came through MDMC, they were going to be placed in either Springfield, Missouri; Nevada, Missouri; or St. Louis because they were the closest locations, Garner said.

The Sikeston Unit is also helping adolescents from the across the state and region.

This past year alone, the Unit had 45 referrals from Children's Hospital in St. Louis, which actually correlated into 15 admissions, Garner said.

"Because these beds are so hard to find, what hospitals do is send a referral out to everybody and then hope they get responses back, and that's why there's a gap in that number," Garner said of the 45 referrals and actual 15 admissions.

The Unit has even received a referral from the state of Louisiana, she said.

Located on the second floor at Missouri Delta Medical Center, the unit is staffed by a multidisciplinary team that provides evaluation, stabilization and treatment services with 24-hour nursing care. Trained behavioral health professionals address the mental, emotional and physical needs of patients, helping them learn skills to manage their situation effectively, Garner said.

The approach to treatment in the Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit is based on current medical research and customized to meet the individual needs of the patient with a variety of therapies, services and medication management.

The unit includes single-bed and double-bed rooms and activity rooms. A daily schedule is in place for patients, who are allotted times for visitors and phone calls every day. There will also be time for school work as the hospital has partnered with Sikeston R-6 School District to provide education for patients.

"It's hard sometimes to find these open beds. We've got patients from Memphis, Tennessee, and a surprising number from the northeast Arkansas area because the closest bed to them is Little Rock, Arkansas," Garner said.

The average length of stay for a patient in the acute behavioral health unit is 4.5 days, she said.

"We know with these types of units, the summertime census is going to go down," Garner said. "They're not in schools, which for so many of these kids, it's the school setting that's stressful so when you eliminate that, that's going to keep everybody better."

Staff expected the unit to get busier when school started last August, she said.

"And it did get busier, but you could still see the impact of so many families deciding to keep their kids home and still do virtual learning," Garner said. "In the fall, we started seeing more admissions, but still yet not like what historically these types of units see."

Then January came and after the first of the year, a lot of the school systems required students to come back in person if their grades weren't where they were supposed to be at semester, Garner said.

"You take these kids that haven't been in a classroom setting for a year and are behind in school and then you put them back in a school setting, and that's when these last few months have been really busy," she said.

What next school year will look like along with the long-range mental health effects of the pandemic remain unknown, Garner said.

"From our perspective, what we've seen is these kids have been out of a formal classroom setting and then put back in, and they're experiencing a lot of anxiety," Garner said. "A lot are coming back in to the classroom, and they're falling behind in their grades. That's stressful. It's almost like you're a new kid coming into the classroom because you've been gone for so long, and we know that's a stressful situation."

Garner said the Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit will continue to be there for those in need.

Visit www.missouridelta.com for a virtual tour of the new unit. Contact the Unit at (800) 455-4295.