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 largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children’s is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region with the first integrative medicine children’s hospital in the country. 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, inclusive, and collaborative children’s health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. A unique partnership between DH and the state of New Hampshire provides the only inpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents in the state at Hampstead Hospital. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at more than 20 locations, including all Dartmouth Health member locations, throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.