The secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs visited UPMC Altoona Tuesday to view its Emergency Department’s 9-month-old behavioral health pod, which her department helped establish with a contribution of $775,000 in opioid settlement money.

The visit helped to highlight her department’s collaboration with the Blair Drug and Alcohol Partnerships, the conduit for the money, according to Latika Davis-Jones.

The stabilization pod helps the hospital’s Emergency Department deal more effectively with individuals who arrive in mental health crises than the previous setup.

Patients previously were first placed in the regular waiting room, then in small rooms with soft surfaces and protruding “bubble” observation windows on the door — a setup that has given way to multi-occupant lounge-type spaces designed to evoke calm among patients, after they receive a quick initial physical assessment.

In the pods, which have separate spaces for adults and adolescents, and which have a team of clinicians always present, patients are assessed for behavioral issues, and treatment may start, before they’re discharged if stable, or admitted to the hospital’s behavioral health unit in a separate building or transferred to some other facility, according to Kim Corle, the hospital’s director of nursing.

The pod is designed to eliminate the potential for self-harm, according to Corle.

It’s also designed to be as unrestrictive as possible — and it’s social, as patients aren’t isolated from one another, according to officials.

The atmosphere is designed to be soothing, BDAP Executive Director Judy Rosser said last summer, during a news conference to mark the opening of the pod.

“It’s a safe place where someone can de-escalate,” Rosser said Tuesday.

The pod has served about 500 patients so far, Corle said.

There haven’t been many issues, she said.

There are only one or two other such pods in the state, Corle said.

The project cost a total of $1.3 million, UPMC Altoona Foundation President Tim Balconi said last year.

In addition to the opioid settlement money, it was funded by $250,000 obtained by U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair; $200,000 from Blair County; and $100,000 from the city.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.