Among other factors, the pathway to care aims to ensure the health and safety of individuals, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and help them achieve their rehabilitation goals—either by acquiring new skills to help them adapt or by acquiring new life skills, knowledge, and abilities to help, amongst other things, better manage symptoms, maximize their protective factors, and prevent relapses (ANA, APNA, and ISPN, 2014).
Here is a brief look of this specialized team:
- The unit psychiatrist is the doctor responsible for treatments during hospitalization.
- The program coordinator is responsible for managing the care and services being offered. They supervise and coordinate all activities in the unit, and may also provide care.
- The assistant coordinator helps the coordinator in their role and steps in for them during any absences.
- The nurse and educator (sociotherapist) identifies any needs based on their specific expertise. They plan any necessary interventions and evaluate results. As well, nursing staff offer specific care based on medical prescriptions.
- The psychologist, criminologist, and social worker offer treatment and services based on their areas of expertise. The psychologist evaluates, manages individual and group psychotherapists, and puts together treatment strategies. The criminologist performs social and family evaluations, analyses, and the understanding of offences or violent acts. They establish contacts with outside resources for treatment follow up and social reintegration. The social worker performs evaluations with families and outside resources, among other tasks.
- The pharmacist provides pharmaceutical care by evaluating medication and creating a treatment plan. They are also available to answer patient questions concerning their medication.
- The community worker oversees the monitoring, well-being, and safety of patients. They share the completion of various daily activities with the nurse and educator.
- The unit clerk is always present in the unit, day or night, to inform and collaborate with other members of the team in order to help meet their needs.
- The incident control officer is a member of the emergency team, providing support to all units. They are not part of the treatment team.
Feel free to let your resource person or caregiver know of any concerns you may have.