The Owen Sound Regional Hospital is unveiling the expansion of its Crisis Support Program (CSP).

Brightshores Health System executives and staff held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the section of the hospital just off of the emergency department on Tuesday.

Crisis Support Program Manager Shannon Reinelt says the program is a short stay, recovery-focused program for patients who are experiencing a crisis related to their mental health.

She says the expansion they unveiled creates better access to their services.

“Now we actually have four individual rooms in addition. That allows us to support eight people or up to eight patients at a time. It now has an addition of an actual bathroom or three, where as before we were operating without one,” says Reinelt.

The expansion also includes a psychiatrist’s office for patient assessment, a TV area and a small lit ceiling.

“It creates better access and flow from our own emergency department, also from our inpatient units to be able to better support patients that are close to discharge,” says Reinelt.

She says the program needed an enhancement to provide more of a private space for patients.

“We also have a high demand for services here at the hospital in terms of crisis intervention. We now can facilitate much better support, decrease wait times for service and intervention and treatment,” says Reinelt.

She says they are also increasing the staff available to tend to the expanded services.

Reinelt adds the expansion has been in the works for years after they initially opened in 2020.

“For the last couple of years we have been planning with our project management team and the construction company to start to move into this new space,” says Reinelt.

She says they anticipate they will be up to full capacity to tend to patients by mid-January.

Brightshores’ President and CEO Ann Ford says, “completing the construction of our CSP space is incredibly exciting for our Mental Health team.”