With the new unit, Bellvitge continues to roll out a new model of mental health care that enhances patient autonomy and eliminates the stigma surrounding these conditions.
The goal is to provide a comprehensive approach, with flexible, personalized, and close care, involving patients and their families in the process.
The new open-door psychiatric hospitalization unit is aimed at individuals experiencing an acute decompensation of a mental disorder that requires intensive treatment, who voluntarily agree to be admitted to the hospital and are not at risk of self-harm or aggressive behavior towards others.
“The goal is to have an open unit, integrated into the overall healthcare structure of the hospital, where patients requiring admission for a mental disorder receive effective and safe treatment, while respecting their autonomy and freedom of movement, just like in any other hospital service. Open hospitalization is based on the collaboration and involvement of the patient in their treatment process and shared responsibility in decision-making,” explains Dr. Pino Alonso, head of the Psychiatry Department at Bellvitge Hospital.
The opening of this new space for hospitalization responds to the gradual implementation of a new mental health care model at Bellvitge, one that places the individual at the center of care, ensuring maximum respect for their autonomy and personal dignity, while also aiming to eliminate the social stigma associated with mental illnesses. The hospital has been developing this model through various initiatives, aiming to approach the voluntary treatment of mental disorders in the same way as any other medical or surgical condition that requires hospitalization.
The new unit, with capacity for 16 patients, replaces the usual central nursing control with a large, barrier-free communal space designed to encourage socialization among patients, group activities, and meetings with family members. In line with the hospital's overall focus on humanizing its spaces, each room in the new unit has been named after a listed farmhouse in the Delta del Llobregat.
A new system of interaction between professionals and patients has also been implemented, based on the safewards methodology, which uses communication strategies to anticipate and manage conflict situations while reducing the use of restrictive and coercive measures such as mechanical or chemical restraints and isolation. The new unit also includes a multisensory room for patients, equipped with adjustable lighting.
Previous experiences with open-door psychiatric units have shown that this approach improves patient adherence to treatment, fosters trust between patients and professionals, reduces the stigma associated with psychiatric treatments, and generally promotes a more positive social perception of mental hospitalization, similar to that of any other condition requiring hospital admission.
As Dr. Alonso summarizes, the paradigm shift integrated into the new unit aims to enhance patient involvement in decision-making about their condition "and provide a comprehensive approach that combines physical and mental health, promotes patient autonomy, and offers flexible, personalized, and close care with the support and participation of families." In this regard, it is worth noting that the Psychiatry Department has also introduced various activities and occupational therapy workshops for patients, such as Bon dia!, a daily meeting space where patients reflect on their hospitalization experience and aspects of cohabitation among unit users; Paraules que consolen, a library of recommended titles by authors and professionals; art therapy workshops, mindfulness sessions, therapeutic walks, horticulture, and a film discussion group.
Alongside this new unit, the hospital will continue to operate a conventional closed psychiatric admission unit in an area of the former Nursing School, which will be renovated in the coming months. This unit will allow for intensive treatment of individuals with mental disorders who, due to their condition, are at risk of self- or hetero-aggressive behaviors and do not agree to receive voluntary treatment.
In designing the new open-door unit, Bellvitge Hospital has collaborated with AFEMHOS, the Association of Families of Mental Health Patients of Hospitalet.
The Psychiatry Department at Bellvitge Hospital is a reference for adult admissions in the North Hospital area and El Prat de Llobregat, providing urgent care to more than 330,000 people.