On the final episode of While We Wait, Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali explore emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment & healing - or emPATH - units, and how they could re-imagine care emergency psychiatric treatment delivery.

The featured guest on this episode is Scott Zeller, formerly from the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry and currently the vice president of Acute Psychiatry at Vituity.

While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.

Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.

Related Links:

• Effects of a Dedicated Regional Psychiatric Emergency Service on Boarding of Psychiatric Patients in Area Emergency Departments (NCBI)
• emPATH Units as a Solution for ED Psychiatric Patient Boarding (Psychiatry Advisor)

If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.