The Ministry of Public Health has inaugurated the first children and youth crisis intervention unit for children and adolescents with mental health problems in the country, one of the main needs in this area. The eight-bed unit is based at the Santo Socorro Respiratory Diseases Hospital (Hospital de Enfermedades Respiratorias Santo Socorro) in Ensanche La Fe, Santo Domingo.
Together with this unit, crisis centers were also inaugurated in the Jacinto Manon hospital in Los Alcarrizos in the Province of Santo Domingo and Juan Pablo Pina in San Cristobal. That brings the total to 24 beds for this type of patient.
The formal inauguration ceremony was headed by Public Heath Minister Altagracia Guzman Marcelino, who highlighted that Santo Socorro was the first hospital with a crisis intervention unit for children and adolescents, and described it as a major step forward.
She also stated that the Padre Billini Psychiatric Hospital at Km. 28 of the Duarte Highway in Pedro Brand municipality would become a psychosocial rehabilitation center for 90 chronically ill patients who have been living there for years, but in a more dignified way.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2016/06/21/423973/ministerio-inaugura-la-primera-unidad-para-atender-salud-mental-de-ninos-y-jovenes
