MONDAY, 21 OCTOBER, 2019

Immediate release

Second year of positive reports for Young People’s Unit

The North of Scotland Regional CAMHS Young People’s Inpatient Unit (YPU) has received positive reports from the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland and the Royal College of Psychiatry Quality Network for Inpatient CAMHS for the second year running.

The 12-bedded psychiatric service is based at Dudhope Terrace in Dundee and provides access to mental health care and treatment for some of the most vulnerable young people aged between 12 and 18 years old. The unit serves NHS Tayside, NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWC) published a report following a visit to the unit in July, where they met with patients, families, carers and staff. This year’s report is extremely positive with no recommendations made.

Young people did not raise any concerns regarding their care and treatment with the only suggestion being in relation to increasing the activities available. Care planning was noted as being person centred and comprehensive, reflecting the assessed needs of each individual patient, with young people being fully involved in the development of these.

A strong emphasis on engagement and communication with families and carers was commended, particularly the introduction of a new role to the service of a link charge nurse/case manager. This role was developed to provide dedicated support to a young person’s family during admission and to ensure that families and carers were fully involved in the child’s care. The person-centred approach to young people being involved in multidisciplinary meetings and reviews was also noted.

The report concluded that it is evident that the service provides a strong emphasis and focus on staff development with staff able to take advantage of training opportunities. Finally the report commended the partnership working that has been undertaken with Police Scotland and voiced support for the continued development of this working relationship to benefit young people.

The Royal College of Psychiatry Quality Network for Inpatient CAMHS (QNIC) review team highlighted that since their last review there have been a number of positive service developments and also commended the new link charge nurse/case manager role.

The report noted that the environment is bright and spacious, staffing for the service is managed well, and a variety of therapeutic interventions and groups are available for young people with a positive school provision.

As with the MWC report, there were no specific recommendations, but the potential challenges noted will now be included in the unit’s local delivery plan and key actions taken forward over the coming months.

As the service has been given above 96% in the review’s criteria scoring, the multidisciplinary team will now be able to work towards national accreditation with the Royal College of Psychiatry early next year. If successful it will become the first unit in Scotland to achieve this.

CAMHS regional network manager Lesley-Ann McGregor said, “The service has been extremely pleased with this year’s reports as both demonstrate the continued improvements by the multidisciplinary team to improve care and treatment to young people and their families/carers.

“The improvement journey is still in its early stages, however the team highly values these annual visits to highlight and further support its commitment to making a positive difference to a young person’s life. Initially the service’s focus was to improve safety and reduce harm through innovation and collaboration between staff, service users, families and carers. As a result the service has been a leader in patient safety improvements for inpatient CAMHS and is now helping influence the future of patient safety initiatives within NHS Scotland CAMHS.

“It is fantastic that the team has been assessed as being able to undertake the accreditation review next year. This is testament to the dedication and commitment of the multidisciplinary team and is a great achievement by all staff.”

Contact:

Louise Wilson

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740718