Detox unit renovated for increased comfort

By Lily Jamali
Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute officially opened a
newly remodeled inpatient detoxification service on Wednesday,
offering medical assistance to patients experiencing withdrawal
from alcohol and drugs.

The new ward, called the Pavilion unit, includes a substance
abuse service in addition to a psychiatric service. Although the
hospital offered such services prior to the unit’s opening,
the remodeled ward offers a comfortable environment in which those
suffering from substance abuse problems can undergo treatment.

“There is an amazing social stigma attached to people who
have an addition of one sort or another,” said Dr. Peter
Whybrow, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of
the Neuropsychiatric Institute. “We have created an
environment where people can use our excellent personnel facilities
and feel comfortable about it.”

Patients typically stay for three to five days in the eight-bed
facility, which has been taking patients for the past several
weeks.

“Most people end up staying for a relatively short
time,” said Dr. Thomas Newton, medical director of the
program of the Substance Abuse Inpatient Service at NPI. “But
some people stay a week or two for more severe problems.”

Patients in the ward suffer from a addiction to a range of
substances including alcohol, cocaine and opiates, prescription
pain medications, and club drugs such as ecstacy and GHB. But
despite the societal stigma attached to alcoholics and drug
addicts, many of the ward patients are everyday people, Whybrow
said.

“There are a lot of people in our society who are addicted
to drugs who have ordinary jobs and ordinary lives,” he said.
“We felt that these people would benefit from a hospital that
had some sense of home and some sense of security.”

According to Whybrow, the Pavilion unit’s planners wanted
to remove the sense of imprisonment often associated with mental
hospitals.

“It was designed 50 years ago when mental hospitals were
built like prisons rather than how hospitals should be
built,” Whybrow said.

“We have tried to renovate this old hospital unit such
that anyone would be comfortable here,” Whybrow continued.
“We have invested a substantial amount of money in improving
the facility by refurbishing it with new carpets and new
furniture.”

The peach-colored unit includes a dayroom with a television set,
games and a piano for patient use. Although the ward is newly
renovated, the same doctors and nurses continue to serve
patients.

“We have some of the best trained people in the country
working here,” said Whybrow. “But this is just the
beginning. Once they come here, patients get over their immediate
dependence with substance abuse or depression because many people
suffer from a combination.”

After patients go through the detox program, they are referred
to outpatient programs such as the Matrix Institute, an outpatient
drug treatment center.

“The Matrix is a set of five facilities in the greater Los
Angeles area,” said Jeanne Obert, executive director of the
institute. “We work with patients who were sent here for
detox. They are sent to Matrix once they’re
finished.”

In addition to those involved in the clinical detox process,
researchers also attended the ward’s opening.

“For us as researchers, it’s great to have a
relationship with the clinical practices at NPI because it gives us
the opportunity to conduct studies with patients that come into
this treatment unit,” said Christine Grella, Associate
Director of the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center.

“In the future, we would be delighted to do some research
here,” Grella said.