Medford, Ore. – Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center is raising their standard of care for their Behavioral Health Initiative, and that process starts with a facility upgrade.
The program has been in the same place since the 60s. Now through community donors and a clear vision from the staff and Asante Foundation, the program is getting a major upgrade that will help and heal more people than before.
Thursday night, staff members of the Behavioral Health Initiative broke ground on what will be their new home.
“We wanted to create this warm comfortable safe environment, so it doesn’t feel punitive and the real healing can happen there,” Director of the Asante Foundation, Andrea Reeder said.
“We realized the environment we were in was so old and run down that it wasn’t as respectful and welcoming to the patients,” Behavioral Health Services Manager, Laurel Madrone said.
This initiative is the only inpatient care facility in the region between Sacramento and Eugene, and the staff here want to make sure it heals as many people as possible. That’s why they got their Sanctuary certification.
“So the Sanctuary Model is a model of care that not only recognizes that adversity and stress are universal but it’s not only for the patients,” Madrone said. “The staff and all of us need to be taken care of as well.”
This new facility won’t just include upgraded rooms and new paint, but healing therapies which include music thanatology, aromatherapy and even puppies. All to ensure that these patients get the help they need to transition out of their facility and back to the outside world.
“When you’re discharged, Asante is really working at ways that we can partner with other agencies in the community,” Executive Director of the Asante Foundation, Floyd Harmon said. “We can help those folks when they leave and provide the support that they need so that they don’t come back and get in a mental health crisis going forward.”
The Asante Foundation says this move wouldn’t be possible without community support. At the start of this project their goal was to raise five million dollars through community giving, and as of today, they’ve raised just over two million.
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