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Help is on the way for children and youth in crisis in the Fraser Valley.

In late May, a special unit for young people between the ages of six and 17 suffering from acute mental health issues will open at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

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The 10-bed child and adolescent psychiatric stabilization unit has been built in the hospital’s old emergency department and will be the first mental-health unit of its kind in Fraser Health. There is only one similar unit in B.C. — the six-bed child and adolescent psychiatric emergency unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Children and youth will be brought to emergency rooms, where they will be assessed by an emergency physician and psychiatrist, and then referred to the stabilization unit if it’s appropriate.

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The unit is meant to treat patients for a short time — up to a week — and they will then be referred to child and youth mental health services in the community, most of which are provided by the provincial government.