A growing number of emergency room visits are related to mental health emergencies, and hospitals are adapting to keep up. [Becker's Behavioral Health] 

One adaptation aims to carve out a therapeutic space amid a crowded and chaotic emergency department for patients experiencing a mental health crisis. 

EmPATH — emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing — units, look more like a living room than an ER. Though they run differently from hospital to hospital, the units feature reclining chairs, rather than beds, in a shared space, or milieu. Nursing stations are open, rather than shrouded in plexiglass. 

Inova Fairfax (Va.) Hospital is home to one of the newest EmPath units, which opened in November. Sonja Flood, director of Inova Behavioral Health, told Becker's the unit features 14 recliners, dim lighting, televisions and quiet spaces for patients who need to decompress away from others on the unit. 

The environment is key to the EmPATH unit, she said, and the hospital put a lot of thought into designing the space. 

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