Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Elysium Healthcare have come together in partnership to build and manage a new dedicated mental health inpatient unit for young people.
The £10 m unit, in Charlwood, Surrey, will provide inpatient beds for young people aged people between 12 and 18, and will open in late 2023, enabling young people with acute mental health needs requiring inpatient to be treated closer to home. Approximately £6 million in funding has been provided by NHS England to operate it as part of a national NHS programme to ensure that specialist services are available countrywide to meet the needs of local populations. An additional £4 million has been invested by Elysium Healthcare – which operates several inpatient facilities nationally supporting young people’s emotional, behavioural, and mental health needs – to build the facility.
Construction began in late September, marked by an official ground-breaking ceremony. The unit will offer 12 inpatient beds for young people, and ‘a therapeutic, safe, and nurturing environment’ to support and aid recovery. It will incorporate communal living and outdoor spaces, including courtyard gardens, a lounge and dining area, multi-purpose activity and sensory rooms, and a quiet room, plus a tribunal and meeting room, a multi-faith room, a family visit room, and an interview room. An Ofsted-registered school will be set up on site to enable young service-users to continue with their schooling while receiving treatment.
Children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health services are already seeing the benefits of partnership working through Mindworks Surrey, an alliance between Surrey and Borders Partnership and other NHS and local and national voluntary sector organisations. This supports the wellbeing of children and young people in the community. The Trust says that the new facility will mean that community and inpatient care are ‘more seamlessly integrated’.