Trinity Health Foundation launches embedded psychiatry pilot program with Phase II Grant

The Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee awarded $150,000 to the Helen Ross McNabb Center to launch its embedded psychiatry pilot program.

This program is the result of a year-long Trinity Health Phase I Research Grant.  In June, Phase I recipients were given a three-month period to further develop their projects. This year, only five large Phase II grants were selected to receive implementation funding.

The Helen Ross McNabb Center’s pilot program addresses challenges faced by individuals experiencing behavioral health issues in our community’s emergency departments. The Center will employ a psychiatric medical provider (MD or APN) and master’s level clinician and embed the positions at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and the University of Tennessee Medical Center emergency departments to conduct psychiatric assessments, consultation services and safety and discharge planning. The proposed project will provide quality care for individuals presenting to the emergency department in psychiatric crisis with a goal of reducing patient boarding time and diverting from inpatient hospitalization.