IWK Health Centre to open new mental health unit next week

HALIFAX – The largest children’s hospital in Atlantic Canada will open a new unit next week to serve children and youth with severe mental illness.

Officials at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax say the Garron Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health is state-of-the-art.

Anne McGuire, president and CEO of the IWK Health Centre, says the centre was made possible by a $5 million donation from Myron and Berna Garron, along with donations from other local philanthropists and institutions.

Dr. Kathleen Pajer, chief of psychiatry, says the unit will provide treatment for conditions such as psychosis, depression, bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder in children and teens.

It will welcome its first patients next week.