All admissions are detained under the Mental Health Act. Referrals come to us from all areas including acute services, prison, or via the criminal justice system.
The focus of our PICU services is stabilisation, and moving service users as quickly as possible to the most appropriate and least restrictive environment, whilst avoiding the need for readmission. This is achieved through the provision of a short term intensive assessment and treatment programme, designed to support service users to regain a sense of control and order in their lives so they can ultimately return home.
Service users come to us in crisis, and often present with very complex needs and increased risks that compromise their physical or psychological wellbeing, or that of others. We can also assess and transfer urgent prison referrals swiftly. Our teams work closely and collaboratively with service users, their families and the referrer to provide a seamless pathway from referral to discharge.
Care and treatment in our PICU services is person-centred and delivered by a comprehensive multi-disciplinary team. There is emphasis on the use of relational security, safety, recovery programmes and pharmacology in the management of risk, challenging behaviour and enduring mental health disorder. Training, coaching and supervision of staff enable the clinical team to remain knowledgeable and skilled in the provision of modern, appropriate, compassionate and safe care to our service users.
We provide a full programme of therapy and meaningful activity across our services, including on and off-ward therapies and 1:1 and group sessions. Therapeutic interventions and activities offered by our services include:
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) informed therapy
- Substance misuse programmes
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)
- Schema Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
- Hearing Voices groups
- Active Life programmes
- Psychoeducation
- Comprehensive occupational therapy programmes
