Maple Lodge

Working together

Your named nurse and associate nurse will continuously support you to make the choices that will shape your recovery. We hope you will benefit from the close partnerships formed with them through this work. They are only part of a much bigger team who will have your best interests at heart. The care you need in the future won’t stop when you leave Maple Lodge. You might need the support of other specialist teams in the community.

From the start you will be encouraged to discuss all of your needs, including housing. You can expect to be fully involved in making decisions about any choices that become available that may meet your needs.

Not all of our service users have a family member who can be involved in their care, but if you wish to involve your family, we would encourage this. Sometimes a family carer can be the most important strength in a person’s recovery.

Even though recovery involves work it also involves having fun and this is just as important. We encourage everyone to join in social activities and trips away from the unit. We would welcome your suggestions on how we can make these more enjoyable.

Recovery

At Maple Lodge all of our work with you will focus on your recovery. Recovery means making the most of your life from now on and we strongly believe that everyone has the potential to regain health and a full life.

However, recovery won’t necessarily mean getting your life back exactly as it might have been if you hadn’t been in hospital. Just as you were able to learn from your life experiences before you had these difficulties, you will be able to do so through your continuing recovery.

The choices you make through the rest of your lifetime will affect your long-term recovery and just like every other person, some of the choices you make will be helpful and others may not be.

Personal strengths

Although you might not realise it at first, everyone has personal strengths and so do you. These strengths include anything you have enjoyed or found helpful in the past, no matter how small they might seem. These things will be very important to your recovery.

Examples might include:

• enjoying a particular type of food
• listening to music
• enjoying a walk
• a hobby or any sort of interest.

Our philosophy of care

Our philosophy of care

• Provide a safe environment, offering individually negotiated care for people with mental health needs.
• Ensure privacy, dignity and respect for our service users, which ensures their rights are upheld.
• To offer a service that supports service users to achieve their personal goals so that they may live as independently as possible.
• To provide a friendly, supportive and therapeutic environment that encourages service users to make the most of their personal strengths.
• To promote the building of trust and good communication through being open and honest at all times.
• To create opportunities to promote:
  • personal motivation and hope
  • social inclusion
  • access to leisure activities.
• All service users will have a named nurse and associate nurses who will work with them to negotiate their individual care plans.
• The range of therapeutic help that is given will be guided by current research and evidence from nursing practice.
• We will take account of any difficulties service users might experience at home and offer respite care when this is mutually agreed to form part of their care plans.

Confidentiality

We will only share your confidential information with those people who need to know in order to deliver your care. We will do this after discussing it with you and obtaining your consent.

Members of the multi-disciplinary team (your consultant, named nurse and social worker) will discuss your care with you and record any treatment you are receiving and your response to it. In some cases we are obligated by law to pass on information.

For further details, please ask to see the leaflet entitled How we use your information to help you. You can get a copy from a member of staff at the unit.

Residential rehabilitation What might this mean for you?

People who are admitted to Maple Lodge for rehabilitation will usually have come from other hospital wards. They are likely to have had unusual or intense experiences and frightening thoughts for a period of time, which may still worry them. Each person’s experiences are unique and can leave them with all sorts of unwanted feelings and effects.

These might include some or all of the following:

• confusion
• a sense of loss of their old self and what they used to be able to do
• loss of control
• feeling stuck
• feeling worthless
• lack of 'get up and go’
• fears about the future and
• difficulty trusting people.

Making sense of what has happened and seeing the real possibility of better days ahead can be difficult at first.

Visitors

There are no strict visiting times at Maple Lodge but we do ask that visitors book ahead of schedule to use the visitors room. Alternatively, visitors are welcome to use the garden or patients may spend time with visitors off the ward within the community.

Going off site

If you want to leave the unit for any reason, please let the staff know before you go. Also please let staff know when you return. This is an important part of the fire regulations.

Drugs, alcohol and legal highs

These are NOT permitted in the unit at any time. Use of illegal drugs is a criminal activity. The unit is regularly visited by our local Police Community Support Officers who work closely with us to ensure Maple Lodge is kept as safe as possible for everyone

What do I do with my valuables?

Your property, cash or valuables remain your responsibility and we prefer not to have large amounts within the unit. If necessary, items can be handed over to staff for safekeeping until alternative arrangements can be made. We will issue you with a receipt for your property, along with a key for a locked drawer in your room.

Please note that the Trust cannot be held responsible for loss or damage to property during your stay at Maple Lodge

Can I bring electrical items?

You are welcome to bring these into Maple Lodge but they will need to be checked for safety by our maintenance department before you can use them.

Named nurse

While you are at Maple Lodge you will have a named nurse and an associate nurse who will both take a special interest in your strengths. At first they will want to get to know you. They will encourage you to talk about your hopes and fears and listen to you. It might take some time but as you begin to trust them you will be able to work together to negotiate your unique plan of care to help you on your way to recovery. As you start to use your strengths to achieve just small goals at first, you will begin to feel more in control and more hopeful about your future.

It is important to know that even if you have a setback, the people working with you will always believe in your ability to get things back on track and will continue to encourage you. We understand that people who have had similar difficulties can experience a range of obstacles to their recovery.

Often it is difficult to accept what has happened and find the will power to get started. If this is how you feel don’t worry, it can take a long time to make sense of what has happened. We are used to supporting people through this. It is important to know that we won’t put any pressure on you and that we will give you time to work at your own pace.

Making plans

Throughout your time at Maple Lodge you will be encouraged to put your plans into action to keep you well and when you are ready, to move on and live as independently as possible. Different things work for different people but we know that to stay well, people need a sense of purpose.

Being in hospital can make people feel excluded from the outside world and the sort of everyday things you used to do. Therefore, an important part of our work will be to help you find new things to do in the community. This will give you a new sense of purpose and provide opportunities to build up your social life. Depending on where your strengths and interests lie, this might be achieved through leisure pursuits, a college course or some sort of work.

Staying well

We know that people have a better chance of staying well if they are able to manage their daily needs.

On a day to day basis you will be encouraged and supported to become as independent as possible by

• shopping
• budgeting
• preparing healthy meals
• taking care of your personal hygiene
• keeping your bedroom clean
• managing your own tablets if these are prescribed.

At first you might need some help with these tasks until you gradually feel ready to do them on your own. It is important to realise that everyone’s recovery is different and you will be given time to do things at your own pace.