The Huntercombe Hospital - Stafford
The hospital has gained an excellent reputation for the provision of high quality clinical service, delivered in a therapeutic environment, dedicated to the assessment and treatment of young people experiencing psychiatric disorders, including severe eating disorders.
The hospital, which is set within the Staffordshire countryside, is located close to major transport links. It provides 38 beds across three separate units.
Our in-house sports and social facilities include a gymnasium, an enclosed garden and sports area. Patients also have supervised access to the hospital gardens and local community facilities where appropriate.
Virtual Tour
Click here for a complete 360 virtual tour of The Huntercombe Hospital - Stafford
Our Team
Although all our services are consultant psychiatrist led, we place a strong emphasis on the multi-disciplinary team approach and patients' care plans and reviews are agreed with the input of all team members. Our specialist teams are experienced in working with young people who have encountered a wide variety of problems including trauma, psychosis, bereavement, depression, anxiety, behavioural and developmental disorders and eating disorders. These teams include our directly employed consultant psychiatrists, staff grade psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical nurse specialists, senior and junior qualified nurses, healthcare support workers, a qualified teacher, psychotherapists, family, art, occupational and sports activity therapists and social workers.
Referral Procedure
We welcome referrals from the patient's consultant or designated team member from their local provider service. Working in partnership with the local team right from the point of assessment ensures effective discharge planning and implementation of appropriate longer-term treatment.
Please see the Referral Form in the Further Information panel on the right hand side.
Treatments
- Psychiatric intensive care
- Eating disorders service
- Adolescent brain injury
- Short term psychiatric assessment
- 24 hour emergency admission
Huntercombe Hospital - Stafford accepts emergency admissions 24 hours a day.
Psychiatric intensive care
Our psychiatric intensive care service has been developed specifically for the needs of young people aged between 12 and their 19th birthday, with mental disorders or illness as a primary diagnosis, who have been detained under the Mental Health Act and require intensive care.
Young people admitted to the unit are suffering from severe mental illness and are requiring intensive care because of concerns about the risk they pose to themselves or others, or both.
We have facilities to safely manage, treat and care for young people diagnosed with a broad range of mental illness including those presenting with:
- suicidal behaviour
- self-harming behaviour
- early onset psychosis
- severe challenging behaviour
- affective disorder
- complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
We will also consider male and female patients:
- with a forensic history
- detained under the Mental Health Act with a restriction order
- with mild learning disabilities in the presence of a treatable mental illness
The service is provided within a purpose-built locked facility which won a healthcare design award. The unit houses 12 individual single bedrooms with separate male and female accommodation. It also has 2 large day rooms, a dining room and an education and activity room. It is spacious and airy and there is access to the well equipped gym, sports area and enclosed garden.
Assessment and Consultation
Detailed assessment by our multi-disciplinary team in consultation with the referrer enables treatment options to be considered in an informed manner. The young person and his/her parents or carers are invited to visit the unit and meet our care team to discuss the goals and limits of admission, treatment interventions and management of possible risk.
Treatment Programme
The first six weeks of admission consist of a multidisciplinary assessment period during which we can identify more detailed therapeutic goals and decide on the further treatment programme.
Treatment is individually tailored but generally includes medication, individual therapy (psychodynamic or cognitive behavioural), art, group and family therapy. Each young person has a key worker Nurse who works closely with him/her over issues in the day to day life of the unit. We also provide opportunities for creative work, sports, physiotherapy and various recreational activities.
Regular audit activities and follow-up studies enable us to evaluate the treatment programmes and outcomes in care and to modify them as necessary, in line with our ethos to provide an excellent quality service that is cost effective.
Outpatient Care and Follow Up
We have a carefully planned and structured programme to provide ongoing support. Prior to discharge, we hold comprehensive discharge and aftercare planning meetings with the family and community professionals and agree the provision of follow-up care.
Assessment Centre
We also have a psychatric assessment centre for adolescents, which complements our existing secure intensive care service. The centre offers in depth psychiatric evaluation of voluntary (informal) patients between the ages of 12 and their 19th birthday with a range of mental health and behavioural problems.
Second Opinion Assessment Service
This service is offered for young people aged between 12 and their 19th birthday, where a consultant wishes to refer a patient for a second opinion to help substantiate diagnosis.
Our consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist will provide an initial assessment and a detailed report for the referred patient.
Eating disorders service
Our eating disorder service offers assessment and treatment of eating disorders in adolescents and young people. The focus is on providing intensive, skilled, experienced multi-disciplinary in-patient treatment. Central to this is the involvement of family and the provision of help and support for those persons most affected by these distressing and potentially life threatening disorders.
We admit young people of both sexes from the age of 12 to 25 suffering from a severe eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. We have earned a reputation for our successful outcomes with treatment-resistant patients. We have two programmes, one for 12 to 18 years and a second for 19 to 25 year olds. Patients are admitted either on a voluntary basis or, where appropriate, detained under the Mental Health Act. We also offer supported discharge packages in order to maximise patients' therapeutic progress.
Assessment and Consultation
Detailed initial assessment by our multi-disciplinary team, in consultation with the referrer, enables treatment options to be considered in an informed manner. We provide advice on meeting the patient's individual immediate and longer term needs as well as providing consultation and support to referrers where appropriate.
Treatment Programmes
As a basic minimum of care we follow NICE guidelines for eating disorders. In addition, we tailor care plans to meet the individual needs of patients and families.
We have developed a range of treatment programmes and a way of working that optimises the prospect of patients' recovery while minimising the length of time they have to be treated away from their families and local community, and strengthens the links with their local provider services.
Emergency admission - six weeks
We accept patients with funding agreed for six weeks. A brief focused admission for acutely ill patients, who can be admitted on the basis of their own consent, or their parents' consent (for children under the age of 16 or 18 if they lack capacity to consent) or under the Mental Health Act, to stabilise the patient's physical and psychological state sufficiently to carry out a safe and appropriate assessment. We can then agree with the patient (if consenting), parents, referrers and commissioners, an appropriate ongoing care plan. Through a structured programme the aim would be to help the patient and their family reach a point at which the patient is able to make a successful transition to continuing recovery as an outpatient (usually with their locality team).
Comprehensive programme
An individualised programme to help the patient and their family reach a point at which the patient is able to make a successful transition to continuing recovery as an outpatient when it has not been possible to achieve this through the six week admission programme or when it has been predicted to be unlikely to be possible or safe to attempt this through the six week programme.
Follow on day patient and outpatient treatment
Recovery from severe eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, generally takes two to three years from commencing treatment. The majority of this time will be in outpatient treatment. The transition from inpatient treatment to outpatient treatment is a time of increased risk of early deterioration and for some individuals this risk can be effectively managed by a period of day patient treatment, prior to outpatient treatment. Following an initial transitional period, ongoing outpatient treatment will generally be with the patient's local mental health service, the details of which will be finalised during the admission.
In some circumstances it will be agreed that we continue the outpatient treatment at our hospital.
Ongoing support
We offer supported discharge packages aimed at maximising patients' therapeutic progress and treatment outcomes. Discharge packages are tailored to meet the needs of the patient and the local provider team, and can be provided on an outpatient or outreach basis.
Focus on education
We recognise the importance of supporting young people's educational needs and ensuring that their stay at our hospital does not compromise their progress. That's why we employ a team of teachers to provide tuition to all our school-aged patients. Up to 12 hours education is scheduled for each pupil every week during term time. This is provided on a one-to-one basis or in a group, depending on individual need.
Working in line with DfES policy, we offer a full curriculum for GCSE, A level and the International Baccalaureate. The hospital is a registered examination centre, which means that patients are able to sit their exams during their stay with us.
For patients who are not ready for external exams, we offer our in-house AQA (Accredited Qualification Award) scheme, which is based around goal-centred learning skills such as reading and numeracy. Patients may also participate in the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN).
For patients outside of school age, our teaching staff are able to provide advice and practical support in identifying post-school occupation or education.
Inspection Reports
All our units are subject to inspection by Government agencies. You can read this unit's inspection report on the Government website. Please click here [External Link]
Location
The Huntercombe Hospital - Stafford is located 6 miles from junction 12 of the M6, travelling west on the A5. There is a local bus service and the nearest train station is in Stafford. International airports at Manchester and Birmingham are only an hour away.
The Huntercombe Hospital - Stafford
Ivetsey Bank
Wheaton Aston
Stafford
ST19 9QT
Tel: 01785 840000
Fax: 01785 842190
Email: huntercombe.stafford@fshc.co.uk
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