Published on: 6th November 2015
Two mental health wards in Lincolnshire are providing high quality levels of care for patients, according to a recent assessment by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Charlesworth and Conolly, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s two acute mental health wards based at the Peter Hodgkinson Centre (PHC), in Lincoln, have just received their AIMS reaccreditation for a further three years.
AIMS, which stands for Accreditation for Inpatient Mental Health Services, is a Royal College of Psychiatrists’ standards-based accreditation programme, which assesses the quality of care on mental health wards across the UK.
The result for PHC means that both wards have evidenced that they are continually providing the best care possible for patients who are admitted to an inpatient unit.
Acting Conolly Ward Manager Emma Britchford said she was absolutely delighted for everyone at the unit.
The team has worked really hard, we’ve improved the environment on the wards and worked to ensure we’re providing high quality, evidenced-based treatment for patients. We were assessed in July and this accreditation means we can now evidence that we’re adhering to the best possible standards of care for all our patients. Our new activity hub really impressed the assessors as we can now provide an area away from the ward where patients can relax. We also offer a range of community activities including dog walking and swimming.
Tracy Colpitts, Ward Manager of Charlesworth, said that as part of the assessment, staff shared their experiences, and those of patients and carers.
The visit allowed us to share good practice and improve networking between different NHS Trusts. Since the review, we have also arranged a visit to a neighbouring acute service to share ideas regarding activity coordination.
