Nearly 100 people stood in protest in front of the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow Monday over the hospital’s short-stay mental health unit closing on Aug. 3.

The eight-bed voluntary unit is facing staff shortages with as many as four vacant positions.

Brenda Dicks worries about her father, Wayne Campbell, who’s currently in the unit.

“Instead of closing it, they need to make it larger,” she says. “There’s always a waiting list. People end up waiting in emerg for three or four days just to get into the unit.”        

Campbell worries he won’t receive proper care if he’s forced to move elsewhere.

“I’m scared to death because I know if I go to Antigonish or go to Truro, they don’t have no records of my illness,” he says. “There are people that’s working with me. They understand my illness.”

The hospital has a crisis response service that will help people dealing with a mental health emergency during the shutdown. If a patient needs to be admitted, however, they would be forced to go to a hospital more than 50 kilometres away. 

“If it closes, I’ll have to go to Truro, and I know none of the staff there and I know none of the doctors there,” says mental health patient Irene Limbeurg. “It’s just very, very stressing.”

The unit is scheduled to close for three months, but protestors say their biggest fear is that once it happens, the closure will be permanent.

Dr. Theresa Vienneau is the clinical director for the mental health unit. She says every effort is being made to recruit psychiatrists and nurses. 

“It’s an estimate, but once again, we will be opening as soon as we’re able to fill the vacancies,” she says. “I do think it’s important that people are reassured that we’re doing everything that we can to mitigate the effect, the negative effects.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh.