NHS intensive care beds expanded and improved for local people

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Local people who need psychiatric intensive care are to benefit from expanded and improved facilities opening on Monday August 25th 2008 by the South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust.

The Trust, who provides specialist NHS mental health and learning disability services, is opening the additional intensive care beds alongside improved facilities at Fieldhead, Ouchthorpe Lane, Wakefield.

There are now a total of 14 psychiatric intensive care beds available for people from Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. Whilst expanding the psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU), the Trust also took the opportunity to install purpose built en-suite facilities into each of the existing bedrooms as well as the newly created bedrooms.

The PICU (psychiatric intensive care unit) is for people who are in a very disturbed phase of a serious mental health disorder and are often compulsorily detained for their own safety in secure conditions.

Gillian Green, the Trust’s assistant director for adult services, explained, "Mental health is just like physical health, it can go through phases of being very good or people can become very unwell. When someone is in need of psychiatric intensive care it means that they are so unwell they cannot be safely and therapeutically managed and treated in an open ward. We need to be able to offer them the best care in the best environment which is why we are delighted to be opening additional beds alongside improved facilities.

"Psychiatric intensive care is an important aspect of the NHS care we are able to offer people and it works closely with other NHS community and inpatient mental health services including the Bretton Centre (low secure inpatient unit) which opened earlier this month on the Fieldhead site."

By expanding and upgrading the PICU at Fieldhead it has also been possible to reconfigure the existing layout of the unit to achieve a flexible segregation of male and female areas to maximise the use of available beds.

NHS intensive care beds expanded and improved for local people

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