Acute Psychiatry Service

Director: Laura Ackerman, M.D.

The Acute Psychiatry Service is located on the Meyer 3 inpatient unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital East Baltimore campus. Its mission is to provide an innovative service for the treatment of severely mentally ill patients in a psychiatric crisis. The goal of the service is to manage the initial psychiatric crisis quickly and promote early, supported re-integration into community mental health services.

The focus of the service is multi-disciplinary treatment using community psychiatry principles, addressing psychosocial needs of the patients, working with families and other support systems in the community. The service primarily treats patients who suffer from severe and persistent mental illness; including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. Many of our patients have a co-occurring trauma history as well as substance use disorders. Our multi-disciplinary team is composed of an attending psychiatrist, psychiatry residents, dedicated clinical nurses, a social worker focused on providing individual therapy and family contact, and a care navigator.

The goal of this service is to comprehensively evaluate, diagnose, and stabilize patients using a combination of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The team will perform a thorough assessment of psychosocial needs and use this information to create a comprehensive, informed discharge plan that aims to prevent future hospital readmissions. Discharge placements include our Community Psychiatry Program, Assertive Community Treatment teams, psychosocial rehabilitation programs, residential treatment programs, and intensive outpatient treatment programs.

Please call (410) 955-5104 or visit the Adult Psychiatry Admissions for additional information about arranging an admission.