Acute Day Units (Mental Health)

Results updated 22 Feb 2018

Camden Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) sought views on how to best organise acute mental health day care services in Camden, to make cost savings while continuing to provide good patient care. We currently commission Camden & Islington Foundation Trust to run two Mental Health Acute Day Units; one at the Jules Thorn unit on the St Pancras Hospital site and one at the Daleham Gardens unit in Belsize Park.

We proposed the changes because the services are currently underused and because the proposed change would not result in any patient being refused appropriate treatment. For current patients, nothing will change. No patient will have their course of treatment disrupted by changing locations. And no-one, now or in the future, will be refused an appropriate service because of this change.

The public consultation ran from 6 November 2017 to 10 January 2018 and we sought to consult on our proposal to reduce the number of Mental Health Acute Day Units from two to one and to strengthen acute care at the remaining unit. In addition, we will support more people to access Highgate Day Centre to provide care for residents with less severe mental health needs.

There was a wide response to the consultation and this has helped us to both test and strengthen our proposals. We thank everyone that took part.

It was clear from the response to our consultation that the balance of opinion felt that the Jules Thorn was the preferred acute day unit to remain open for a number of reasons summarised in the analysis of consultation results published today. This supports a CCG decision to proceed with this option which we intend to implement from 30 April 2018.

Our report outlines the 12 actions we will take to strengthen the change. These are:

1. C&I and the CCG will monitor the usage of the Jules Thorn unit in the future and will take action to ensure that it retains sufficient capacity to address the needs of the borough.
2. C&I and the CCG will develop accessible information about the changes and ensure that this is shared as widely as possible.
3. C&I will host an open day at the Jules Thorn unit ahead of the changes.
4. C&I will consider accessibility of services in any St Pancras Hospital site redevelopment, including the location of Jules Thorn unit.
5. C&I will develop referral criteria and processes between the Jules Thorn unit and the Highgate Day Centre and to ensure that Highgate Day Centre’s free 12 week service is well publicised.
6. Both ADU teams  will discuss with patients the impact of changes and provide spaces to discuss this. Individual plans will be made with any patient with particular concerns.
7. C&I will ensure current and former regular users of the Daleham Gardens unit are invited to the open day at the Jules Thorn unit.
8. C&I will develop an example timetable for the Jules Thorn unit to help people understand what the offer will be.
9. The CCG and C&I will engage the Camden Borough Users Group (CBUG) to see whether they would like to visit the Jules Thorn unit after the changes have been made.
10. C&I will develop individualised care planning within the Jules Thorn unit.
11. The CCG will promote the website http://www.mentalhealthcamden.co.uk for wider use and will work with C&I to promote greater awareness of wider community resources, including in discharge planning.
12. The CCG and C&I will develop an engagement plan with residents, service users and carers to think about the future shape of mental health support in the context of challenging funding.

We intend that these changes will make the remaining services more sustainable in the future and ensure that mental health care is delivered at the right time and in the most appropriate setting.

Files:

• aduconsultationreport22feb18.pdf, 572.0 KB (PDF document)