ACUTE - Men's Mental Health

Ward detail

Benfleet ward provides short periods of rapid assessment, intensive treatment and stabilisation for patients experiencing an acute phase of mental illness. Admission will be based on an individual needs assessment.

Patients admitted to Benfleet will display diagnostic complexities but will not present with the behavioural challenges that are typically seen in patients presenting to PICUs. Patients will require short-term periods of stabilisation before returning to community services.

If a patient’s state deteriorates whilst in an acute ward, there is the option for patients to be supported within the Men's Mental Health Pathway in Essex, either within the Male PICU (Audley Ward) or our Low Secure inpatient service (Danbury).

Detailed admission inclusion criteria for acute:

• Patients admitted to the acute ward should exhibit a mental state which seriously compromises their physical or psychological well-being
• Patients should be detained under the MHA 1983 (all section papers are checked before accepting admission) and patients are not admitted under section 136.

Detailed admission exclusion criteria for acute - Admission should not occur in the following circumstances:

• Patient is presenting extreme behaviours that challenge and is deemed too high risk for the acute ward, instead requiring PICU services.
• Patient is assessed as presenting too high an internal or perimeter security risk for the acute ward, requiring a higher security level.
• The patient has a primary diagnosis of substance misuse and the primary purpose of admission is solely to prevent access to substances
• The patient has a history of of absconding
• The patient has a primary diagnosis of Dementia, Learning Disability and Personality Disorder
• Patients physical condition is too frail to allow their safe management on an acute ward
• Patient has a chronic condition which would not benefit from admission to an acute ward
• The patient is restricted (subject to MHA 1983 , via the courts ,Ministry of Justice) and has no clear pathway or provision for transfer from the acute ward once clinically warranted
• Patient must be 18 years and over and not above 65 years.

Treatment and care

We provide high quality, tailored treatment programmes which are developed to recognise each individual’s strengths, needs and risks, with specific emphasis on treating mental illness and starting the recovery process.

Patients on our acute ward are supported by high levels of experienced medical and nursing staff, Psychologists, Social Workers and Occupational Therapists.

Our clinical team are expert in treating people with acute mental illness, offering a range of group and individual therapeutic interventions to meet the patients’ needs at different stages of their recovery, including:

• Psychological skills
• Mindfulness
• Problem solving
• Mental health awareness, including: understanding stress, understanding medication, substance misuse and understanding unusual experiences (psychosis).

Once risk is reduced and the patient’s mental state and behaviour has been stabilised, transfer to an appropriate facility will take place – we focus on moving individuals on to these services and back in to less secure or community settings as soon as possible.

Benfleet Ward uses medication led model and follows the nursing approach of Safewards which incorporates:

• clear mutual expectations
• soft words
• reassurance
• mutual help meeting
• bad news mitigation
• positive words
• calm down methods
• discharge messages
• talk down
• know each other.

Depending on their mental state and length of stay, patients will be engaged on a suitable Occupational Therapy programme to facilitate their recovery.  These groups are facilitated by Occupational Therapists, Psychology, Nursing, with sessions also by the Physical Health Nurse and Advocacy.