New mental health center in Rockville is the first of its kind in the county

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Rachael Golden⁄The Gazette Dr. Marianne Wudarsky, the service director for the new inpatient children’s unit at Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center in Rockville, shows off the new facilities.

Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center opened the first such unit for children ages 6 to 11 in Montgomery County this week. The 12-bed unit will allow youngsters to receive care closer to home.

‘‘To date, if a child required inpatient mental health services, the family would need to travel to Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., or to the Baltimore area,” said vice president and chief operating officer Pat Petralia. ‘‘This is a considerable burden for families with young children in crisis.”

Distance can play a role in the level of progress a family can make with treatment or whether the child participates in an inpatient treatment program at all, said Dr. Marianne Wudarsky, the unit service director.

It is very difficult for any parent to be separated from his or her child by distance, especially in times of crisis, Wudarsky said. For parents who do not agree to hospitalization when it is necessary, the crisis either continues and can get inflamed, or a certain equilibrium is reached, but it is not optimal for the child’s development, she added.

If a child is hospitalized far from home, parents may find it more difficult to participate in treatment on a regular basis, and parental involvement is a critical component for progress, Wudarsky explained.

The inpatient program at Potomac Ridge is designed to provide a seven- to 10-day stabilization period and give parents an opportunity to connect with a mental health professional to define the problem, Wudarsky said.

‘‘We hope to be functioning as a place where parents could see the unit as a safe place where they can collect information, collect themselves, and walk out with a road map for further care,” she said.

Potomac Ridge differs from other hospitals with similar services by providing a family-centered program and an evening family support group for parents, Petralia said.

Many parents do not generally meet directly with doctors when their child is in the hospital and interact mainly with social workers and nurses, Wudarsky said. But she plans to do things differently and make every effort to connect with parents face-to-face, she said.

Potomac Ridge also intends to have an admission meeting within two days of the child’s entry into the hospital so that parents can meet with all team members, including the doctor, nurse, social worker and discharge coordinator, Wudarsky said. The intent is to set goals and come up with a reasonable treatment plan that can be accomplished during the child’s stay, she said.

‘‘We know that the early identification and effective intervention of mental health services will prevent the need for future hospitalizations,” Petralia said.