Intensive care unit receives accreditation
A specialist mental health service provided by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists as providing high quality care to local people.
The Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) cares for people from Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield and the accreditation process aims to recognise work within PICU services in terms of the care provided, team working and service improvement.
The Trust’s PICU is based at the Fieldhead site in Wakefield and provides specialist psychiatric intensive for people who are in a very disturbed phase of a serious mental health disorder. The unit offers an enhanced level of care and security necessary to safely care for people who require a specialist environment for a short period of time.
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 can not be safely and therapeutically managed and treated in an open ward. The Trust’s PICU ensures that the best care is provided in the most appropriate environment by highly skilled staff.
The service has been accredited by the Accreditation for Inpatient Mental Health Services (AIMS), which is a quality improvement programme developed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists designed to recognise good practice at the same time as supporting local clinical and service improvement in line with national standards.
Deputy ward manager Catherina McKenning, who led the accreditation work, said, “This status recognises the team’s hard work and celebrates our innovative approach, which has consistently developed and improved the service, keeping the people who receive treatment at the facility at the heart of everything we do.”
In order to decide if the PICU service met the required standards assessors visited the team and studied the environment, quality of records, interviewed staff and met with service users and carers.