Senior Behavioral Health Services

For seniors suffering from depression, anxiety, grief or other problems associated with mental illness, Baptist Medical Center has an inpatient program, Senior Behavioral Health Services, designed to address their specific needs.

The unit, located on Unit 5A in Baptist Medical Center, is within a secured area, accessible by keypad entry. All meals and therapy are provided to patients within the unit. Medicare and most major health plans provide coverage.

For short term admission, a person must meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Be cognitively capable of benefiting from therapy, unless he or she has been admitted for diagnostic/medication evaluation
• Be able to attend group sessions
• Be medically stable
• Exhibit an abrupt change in behavior
• Be unable to maintain basic self-care due to a psychiatric condition
• Show an impaired understanding of reality
• Exhibit suicidal statements or gestures
• Exhibit a need for geropsychiatric diagnostic evaluation

Baptist's Senior Behavioral Health Services provides patients with inpatient treatment seven days a week. Patients see a psychiatrist on a daily basis; family members are invited to attend a multi-disciplinary meeting to plan and evaluate treatment. Occupational and physical therapy are also provided on a consultation basis.

Each patient is given a medical evaluation upon admission into this medically supervised program. The patient's personal physician can follow the patient medically during his or her stay on the unit.

Physicians, healthcare professionals, nursing care facilities or agencies or family members may make referrals to the unit.
For more information about the Senior Behavioral Health Services program, call 601-968-1051.