Macon facility will take different approaches to disability care. See the progress.
Nine months after its groundbreaking ceremony, a new crisis services and diagnostic center serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities has its framework in place and is less than a year from opening.
In a hard hat and sunglasses, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Director Greta O’Dell walked across the concrete foundation using metal beams as landmarks to show what will go where when the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Crisis Stabilization and Diagnostic Center opens in May 2025.
“There will be a couple of offices here, this right here will be a hallway … we’ll have a nursing station around here,” said O’Dell.
The center will be the first of its kind, said O’Dell, providing both behavioral and medical care for people with these disabilities. The facility is a partnership between RiverEdge Behavioral Health, Mercer University, and the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. People will be able to stay in the Crisis Services Center for 30 to 90 days while they receive both behavioral and medical treatment.
It’s treatment O’Dell said is often hard to receive, as Georgia law prevents people from being admitted to state hospitals if their primary diagnosis is an intellectual or developmental disability, and O’Dell says intellectual or development disabilities often cause people to be ruled out for care elsewhere.
Walking around the building’s framework, O’Dell explained how the center would operate when the facility opened.
Restraints won’t be used on patients
“Unsafe” and “dehumanizing” are the words O’Dell used to describe the use of restraints and seclusion in crisis stabilization facilities. Restraints are used in other facilities, O’Dell said, but they won’t be used at the River Edge building.
“It results in loss of dignity for the individual,” said O’Dell.
Research shows these averse procedures cause injuries, according to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
If someone needs more seclusion, the facility provides two calming rooms. It will also contain two sensory environments and an outdoor space.
“River Edge uses positive behavior supports philosophy to focus on improved quality of life as well as reduction in the problem behaviors,” said O’Dell.
Importance of safe furniture
O’Dell is working with furniture company Pineapple for safe furniture that promotes healing.
Pineapple president of sales, Daniel White, said the company’s furniture hits all of the functional components, like infection control and anti-weaponization, but what sets it apart is design. White said other furniture that focuses on safety often doesn’t have an appealing design.
“If you put those on paper you would end up with a really institutional product ... it wouldn’t promote wellness and calm,” said White.
The company designs products that are functional and promote healing, like the Boden Rocker. The chair won three awards for excellence in design and health care. The chair was designed to provide touch points that feel like a hug, said White. It also has a stable rock. The company emphasizes the stable rocking because vigorous rocking can trigger a psychotic episode, White said.
“Our priority is safety, but our passion is design,” said White.
O’Dell ordered five of the chairs.
Teaching for the Future
Mercer medical students and other health science students will be able to shadow and learn the best practices for providing care from the many physicians in the facility. Their specialties will include gynecology, dentistry, gastrology, occupational therapy, and many more. There will be some permanent care doctors and some specialties that will be there on a more rotational basis, once a week or so, said Jean Sumner, dean of the Mercer school.
Sumner hopes that once students learn the skills from professionals, they will be able to distribute them across the state.
“There are very few programs across the country that train and educate health care providers to care for people with unique problems like this,” said Sumner.
O’Dell and Sumner are both excited about the future of the facility, they hope it can be a model for others in Macon and nationwide.
“I’m committed,” said Sumner, “I just want to make sure that we do an outstanding job.”
