Holland Hospital adds mental health beds to ‘treat the whole person’

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Holland Hospital is expanding its inpatient behavioral health unit from 16 to 18 beds as Ottawa County endures growing demand for critical mental health care.

“Ottawa (County) has some of the highest levels of psychological stress currently that we have ever seen,” Holland Hospital Director of Behavioral Health Services Mikaela Andrea told News 8 Thursday.

The two additional beds are funded by a grant from the Michigan Health and Hospital Association . The expanded unit will be able to accommodate an estimated 100 additional patients per year.

“The patients that we treat routinely in that setting are experiencing suicidal ideations or may have had a recent suicide attempt,” Andrea said. “They may have symptoms of psychosis like hallucinations or delusions, or they may just not be able to function, like sleep, eat or care for themselves on their own.”

The growing need for mental health resources was reflected in the county’s latest Community Health Needs Assessment , which has been conducted every three years since 2011. The 2023 results show that the percentage of people reporting poor mental health for more than two weeks nearly doubled from 2014 to 2023.

The percentage of respondents who had thoughts of suicide also grew from 4.9% in 2020 to 8.9% last year. The percentage of those people who attempted suicide surged from under 20% in 2020 to almost 37% in 2023.

Those statistics are reflected in higher traffic at critical mental health care institutions, but without ample space in behavioral health units, people in crisis end up in emergency departments, which are not equipped to provide the same level of care.

“We have 24/7 staffing, which is comprised of a multidisciplinary treatment team,” Andrea said of the inpatient behavioral health unit. “Our psychiatrists work closely with our treatment team. They are doing psychiatric evaluations and medication management. Our therapists are working with the patients on whatever their interpersonal issues are that brought them into care with us. We also have occupational therapists, psychiatric nurses, mental health assistants and spiritual care chaplains. We really are trying to treat the whole person.”

Holland’s expanded unit will be fully staffed and operational starting Sunday.

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