Director of the Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark, Martin Lund, welcomed the participants and on behalf of the region expressed satisfaction with the project, that will gather large parts of The Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen in a single location: ”There will be many opportunities for development, green scenery to look at and all patients will have their own private room. We are getting a unique possibility to create a visionary, modern and homely mental health services to the benefit of both patients, next of kin and personnel,” he said.
The next speaker was Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, chairman of The Capital Region of Denmark. She emphasized the fact that the day marked more than a new construction: ”We are working in the direction of a more human and coherent health care service where the patient will get the right treatment in a stimulating setting. When we look at the project it is obvious that it is created with the central idea of helping and caring for people. It is care, help and respect that people are met with” she said. ”The modern facilities will give us new and unique possibilities of conjoining the treatment,” she added.
The chairman also talked about the close collaboration between the users and the project management at workshops, where the daily users of the mental health services gave inputs and feedback - and she thanked the patients and next of kin who participated in the workshops:
”Thank you to all of you who have made your experiences available and have let us know what it feels like to be patient, next of kin and a daily user of our facilities. I look forward to getting your thoughts and ideas implemented in practice in order for you to see that what you contributed with has actually been heard.”
Read about how user involvement has been an important part of the project (Danish only)
At the end, Line Duelund, Head of The Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen, emphasised that it's a very big day for The Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen: ”Today is a very, very important milestone for us. It's a very special thing to see this building shoot up from the ground – a building that will gather our large centre and give all Copenhageners modern mental health services”, she said.
She mentioned the insufficient physical environment that the psychiatric patients have today: ”The conditions are for sick and vulnerable people”, and Line Duelund therefore looked very much forward to be able to welcome the patients in the new Psychiatric Centre Bispebjerg. She talked about the great treatments that the patients get thanks to so many dedicated employees.
After the speeches, the ground was jointly broken by the three speakers Martin Lund, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen and Line Duelund.