Sempervirens Opens Its Doors to New Patients as COVID-19 Outbreak Passes - Lost Coast Outpost

A recent COVID-19 outbreak forced Sempervirens, the only in-patient psychiatric hospital within a 300-mile radius of Humboldt County, to temporarily close its doors to new patients struggling with mental illness. .

“As [Sempervirens] is not licensed to hold someone with a contagious disease on the unit, Behavioral Health administration worked closely with Public Health and local hospitals and moved the six COVID-positive patients to local hospitals,” DHHS spokesperson Christine Messinger wrote in an email to the Outpost this morning.

“…During the time the COVID-positive patients were at local hospitals, Behavioral Health staff spent time assisting them on-site.”.

The patients who tested negative were able to stay at the facility and continue treatment, but the admission of new patients was put on hold while COVID-positive patients finished their quarantine.

DHHS confirmed that one of the six COVID-positive patients was transferred out of the county for mental health treatment.