RECENT NEWS

Local plans to ‘transform care for people with a learning disability and/or autism’ have been published by NHS England, ‘backed by millions of pounds of dedicated funding’.

The NHS has launched a programme that it says will ‘each year help an extra 30,000 new or expectant mums who experience serious mental ill health’.

The Department of Health is to put £816 million in funding into research into key areas including mental health, dementia, and antimicrobial resistance.

The University of Cumbria has received £70,000 in funding from the CRH Charitable Trust towards ‘a unique research project’ which will investigate the issues of autism and the criminal justice system.

A new low secure mental healthcare facility just outside Wellington near Taunton is now complete, say the architects, P+HS, who have been working closely with developer, Montpelier Estates, to deliver Wellesley Hospital, which will provide ‘high quality, recovery-centred care’ for a range of users.

A manufacturer of products ‘designed to protect doors, people, and places’, has strengthened its field sales team with the appointment of three new area sales managers.

A new £14 million ‘state-of-the-art’ CAMHS facility in Chester has been completed. Ancora House, located on the Countess of Chester Health Park, will provide Tier 4 inpatient and day patient care for children and young people with severe and/or complex mental health conditions ‘beyond the remit of community services’.

The new GalvinCare Anti-Ligature Shower Control Valve with Electronic Activator – winner of the Product Innovation of the Year Award at May’s Design in Mental Health 2016 Awards – was designed to provide service-users and patients with an easy-to-use way to activate and control a shower, ‘while providing the anti-ligature and vandal-resistant features needed in mental healthcare environments’.

Apollo Fire Detectors has launched a new mobile ‘app’ for iOS and Android devices to help users ensure compliance with BS 5839-1 rules and regulations when installing fire detection and notification devices.

With the mandate for the use of Level 2 Building Information Modelling on public sector projects now in force, Intastop has seen ‘a noticeable rise’ in downloads of its ‘BIM-responsive data’, and has accordingly expanded its library to include its ‘IVision’ vision panel and ‘unique’ Door Top Alarm.

At last month’s IFSEC International 2016 event in London, UK biometric face recognition system specialist, Aurora, unveiled a claimed ‘world-first’ in access control technology – a system that allows registered users to open doors simply by looking at a sensor, with no need for additional verification such as tokens, cards, or PINs.

Woodland View, a £46 million adult acute mental health and community facility in Irvine in Ayrshire, has opened its doors to service-users.

Thames Lodge, a new £60 million mental health building at St Bernard’s Hospital, Ealing, designed by David Morley Architects, and built by Kier, has opened.

At May’s Design in Mental Health Network 2016 conference at the National Conference Centre in Solihull, the Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN) and the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care and Low Secure Units (NAPICU) announced that they would be working together to create new design guidance for psychiatric intensive care units.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s proposed £21 m new unit for Children, Young People and Families has received planning permission from Nottingham City Council.

Service-users have created poetry, inspired artworks, and helped to design the interior of Thames Lodge, a new Medium Secure Unit at St Bernard’s Hospital in West London which opened in February 2016.

Wallgate has worked closely with Bradford District Care Trust’s architect, DLA Freeman White, to introduce a new range of ‘dementia-friendly’ colours for anti-ligature fixed toilet seats for the award-winning new Dementia Assessment Unit centre at Daisy Hill House in Bradford.

Salford residents living with dementia are taking part in what the Salford Clinical Commissioning Group describes as ‘a revolutionary virtual reality rehabilitation pilot’, led by a local brain injury charity.

Following ‘a significant investment’ in its Trend Energy Services Division, Trend Control Systems can now ‘tackle demand side energy management even more effectively’ – by remotely managing a customer’s BEMS so it works more efficiently, thereby creating greater energy savings and lowering CO2 emissions.

Guernsey’s new £24 million Oberlands Centre, situated alongside Princess Elizabeth Hospital in St Martin, which opened its doors in January this year – will see all mental health services on the island under one roof at the facility.