Your care plan
The services and treatments you will have whilst on the ward are all written down in a care plan, which explains what they are for, how they work, and who is responsible for each part. You should always be involved in deciding what goes into your care plan, and will always be able to have a copy of it.
Your care plan might include information on:
- Your mental health
- Your rights
- Your inpatient team
- Your observation/ engagement levels
- Family/ carer involvement
- Spiritual and cultural needs
- Your physical health
- Medications
- Social care needs
Admission MDM
Within the first few days (usually 48 working hours) of you arriving in hospital you will have an admission meeting. This may involve a range of professionals including nursing staff, medical staff, community teams you are involved with, pharmacy, occupational therapists, your family/friends/carer/ advocate. This initial meeting may be overwhelming, and it is important to remember this is your review and is about your care. You can decide which professionals you do and do not wish to attend alongside your doctor.
In this meeting, we may also begin to discuss planning for home – please see this section below for further detail on what may be covered.
Ward rounds/ Multi-disciplinary meetings (MDMs)
Ward rounds are when your Consultant meets with the nursing team on the ward to discuss your health. You will have the opportunity to see the Consultant and discuss anything or ask any questions. This is an opportunity for all who is involved in your care to meet to discuss your needs and make further plans to benefit your health.
Your family/carers
If you have family or friends who provide a lot of support for you, there may be some things we can do to help them, like giving them information about services, or putting them in touch with other carers. If they provide a lot of support regularly, they may be entitled to a carers assessment. The staff on the ward can help with this. Let them know if you think your family or friends need help.
The Radbourne Unit hosts a carer’s group which was set up in 2008 and is run by staff members from the Trust. It is aimed at giving those who care for people with mental health illnesses the support they often need, as carers can frequently feel overwhelmed, forgotten and confused.
The group meets monthly and if you need more information about when/ where it is then please speak to your staff. The group is for all carers, whether they have a relative in hospital or not. The meetings are kept informal; however topics such as relapse prevention, staying well, high expressed emotion and its impact on recovery are covered.
Planning for home
When you arrive in hospital, you will have your future needs discussed within the multi-disciplinary meetings (MDMs). This will consider the next steps when you are ready to leave hospital either on trial home leave or discharge home. Family, carers, an advocate or someone of your choice to be involved in your care and will be encouraged to take an active role in these meetings if you consent to this. The staff on the ward will create a leave/discharge care plan which will include who to contact if you need to talk to someone, and when someone will contact you.
Crisis and home resolution team
A role of the crisis Team is to support early discharge from the inpatient wards, and this may mean you have a member of the Early Discharge Team in your ward review meetings. The Early Discharge Team is a part of the Crisis Team.
There are a range of professionals within the Crisis Team such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists and support workers. Transitioning from the ward to home with the support of the Crisis Team will always be discussed and agreed via your care meeting on the ward, these are often called Multi-Disciplinary Meeting (MDM's).
The Early Discharge team can join your MDM to help review your progress within a week of your admission and on a continued basis while you are on the ward.
This means your care, treatment and recovery can continue away from the ward and you can be back in your home with the support of your friends, family or carers whilst making steps to returning back to your regular routines and daily structures even if you are not fully recovered.
n the MDM's there will be ongoing discussion around your mental health, how you're feeling and when both you and the care team agree you're moving towards discharge then leave away from the ward can be planned. This leave will be planned with yourself, your carers/family/friends and any professionals currently supporting you.
The Crisis Team can visit you during periods of leave to support your mental health and recovery. And this can continue once you're discharged from the ward and continue in your recovery.
