The opening of our new AMP unit represents a significant step forward in caring for the increasing volume of adolescent patients in our community who require an intensive inpatient level of care.
William C. Torrey, MDDartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) marked the opening of its new adolescent medical psychiatry (AMP) unit on Tuesday, April 1, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The six-bed inpatient unit will provide care to adolescents ages 12 to 17 experiencing mental health crises.
“The opening of our new AMP unit represents a significant step forward in caring for the increasing volume of adolescent patients in our community who require an intensive inpatient level of care,” said William C. Torrey, MD, chair of psychiatry at Dartmouth Health. “The patient- and family-focused treatment program will include diagnostic assessment, formulation, and treatment using evidence-based therapeutic interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy and family therapy, and psychiatric care.”
The AMP unit is a collaboration between the Children’s Hospital at DHMC and Dartmouth Health’s psychiatry department. Treatment on the unit will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team including child psychiatrists, child psychologists, pediatricians, mental health therapists, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses and mental health technicians. Complementary art, music and pet therapy will also be offered.
The space where the AMP unit is located, on the second level of DHMC’s Wing C, is newly renovated and designed to be bright, modern and cheerful, featuring wall murals and private rooms with windows. Streaming music, movies and television will be available, along with personal Chromebooks and tablets so patients’ academic work can continue during hospitalization. The unit also has access to a secure outdoor activity space, which will open this summer.
“This new unit demonstrates Dartmouth Health’s ongoing commitment to creating greater access to care and meeting the mental and behavioral health needs of our region and how Dartmouth Health Children’s leverages the full power of our academic health system to meet the unique needs of children and adolescents,” said Keith J. Loud, MD, MSc, physician-in-chief of Dartmouth Health Children’s.
DHMC will begin admitting patients in the AMP unit on Monday, April 7.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children's is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region. Fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored for more than 30 years by Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD)—in Lebanon, NH—Dartmouth Health Children's promotes health, advances knowledge, and delivers the best patient and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents across New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth Health Children's conducts groundbreaking research and educates the next generations of health professionals as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Highly skilled and collaborative child health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD) and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester. Primary care appointments in general pediatrics are available at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Bedford, Concord, Lebanon, Manchester and Nashua, NH and Bennington, VT; as well as at Dartmouth Health members: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Cheshire Medical Center, New London Hospital and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.