RIH Mental Health and Substance Use area (image credit – Interior Health)
By Michael Reeve
RIH UPGRADES
Sep 16, 2025 | 4:21 PM
KAMLOOPS — Last week, Royal Inland Hospital opened a new mental health and substance use care zone, separate from the emergency department.
The new purpose-built care zone is double the size of the previous unit, and provides a higher level of privacy for patients and their families. Where before, patients suffering from mental health and substance use issues were grouped in with emergency medical patients, both will now have their own designated space within Royal Inland.
“Having our old space, we did the best we could, but having patients in these crisis in a hallway or outside of a seclusion room or in the general population of the main emergency department, it wasn’t ideal for them,” said Gerry Desilets, RIH Executive Director of Clinical Operations. “I think giving them a purpose-built space that has taken the staff’s input in mind — calming colours, open space, private space — is super important. I think people struggle with mental health and it’s often a very hard thing to come forward with and makes it even harder if you are going to be in the middle of an emergency department where it’s really busy and loud.”