Specialist low secure services for men and women, and rehabilitation services for women with complex mental health conditions, personality disorder and forensic histories in Pontypridd, South Wales.
Heatherwood Court Hospital
Address
To discuss a potential referral to Heatherwood Court Hospital, please contact:
Heatherwood Court Hospital is a specialist hospital offering low secure services for men and women and rehabilitation services for women.
We specialise in supporting those with complex mental health conditions, including those who have received a diagnosis of personality disorder, and forensic histories.
Our Care Pathways and Model of Care
Low Secure Care
Our Low Secure service is for men and women with an offending history and/or who may pose a risk of harm to others, who require a time-limited period of inpatient treatment in a secure environment. We provide comprehensive assessment and individually tailored formulation, treatment, and rehabilitation within a setting of physical, procedural and relational safety and security.
We specialise in working with those who present with severe and complex mental health difficulties related to their forensic histories, risk of harm to themselves or others and personality disorders.
Time for Change is our treatment approach, grounded in the use of formulation to help people focus on the links between their personal story, their mental health needs and offending history. We believe that if people are supported to understand their behaviours and mental health conditions, and work on specific goals that are important to them and their recovery, they tend to see the future more positively. We aim to identify and build on individuals existing skills and provide a step-based change programme focusing on recovery and preventing readmission to hospital.
Time for Change includes the following phases:
Fresh Start Starting Off
The assessment phase commences as soon as the patient is admitted and involves a comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment of their needs, goals and required recovery outcomes. It is at this stage that each patient works with the clinical team to produce their own ‘safety and support plan’. This is a co-produced and continually reviewed care plan aimed at anchoring the general approach to each person’s care.
Moving Forwards
The main treatment and rehabilitation phase is individually developed to meet needs identified in the formulation and offers individual and group work interventions, including:
• Psychiatric review and medication management
• Support around physical health and promotion of wellbeing through access to primary and secondary care
• Occupational Health – assessment of needs and production of a meaningful activities programme
• Individual therapy
• Drug and alcohol group
• Hearing Voices Group
• Sexual harm programme
• Arson offending programme
• Regulating Emotions
Moving On
This stage, commencing after the first Care Programme Approach or Care and Treatment Plan meeting, involves developing a formulation.
A formulation is a shared understanding of patient difficulties and why they may have them.
• Addressing Trauma
• Think it Through Group focusing on Relationships
• PTSD Psycho-Education Group
• Meaningful activities programme
• Engagement in the community to promote independence and social inclusion
Individual goals are developed using an approach we call RISE – standing for ‘recovery in supported environments’. This approach supports each patient to develop their own recovery goals and to identify what they feel they need to achieve these. These patient generated goals are seen as of equal importance to clinicians’ treatment plans. They help the process of aligning clinician opinion with patient views on what is important. We believe that this approach is more likely to result in meaningful improvement and swifter discharge.
This is the final stage of the patients’ stay where the teams support discharge into the community, through the creation of a Moving On Pack and programme (see below).
Women may then step down to our rehabilitation ward if they require a further period of inpatient treatment prior to discharge to the community.
Rehabilitation Care for Women
Women may progress from low secure or may be admitted from an external setting.
On Caernarvon Ward we aim to support women’s recovery’s by helping them to develop increased selfregulation and emotional management, allowing them to move on to the least restrictive setting in the community. We aim to create a calm, safe, friendly contained ward environment always promoting dignity and respect. We believe positive relationships are key to this process. On Caernarvon Ward there is therefore a high focus on intensive relational support. The team are committed to the development of positive therapeutic relationships with service users and promoting healthy communications between staff and patients. We strive to empower service users in all areas of their life and related to this we see service users as central to any decision-making process and view their involvement as integral to a successful transition along our Relational Recovery Care Pathway
Many of the women we support have a diagnosis of personality disorder and history of trauma and abuse. As such our treatment programme is psychologically informed and trauma focused with the aim of addressing the links between personality disorder/ mental health needs and past issues. We consider the process of treatment – the way in which people are supported to both understand and change – to be as important as the actual technical models used. The ward therefore has a focus on the use of process groups aimed specifically at fostering positive relationships between staff and patients, and to ensure that the ward transparently addresses issues of risk and safety in the community.
We provide specialist assessment, formulation, treatment, and rehabilitation over a defined period with a focus on discharge on admission.
Individual and group-based interventions include:
• Psychiatric review and medication management
• Support around physical health and promotion of wellbeing through access to primary and secondary care
• Occupational Health – assessment of needs and production of a meaningful activities programme
• Individual therapy
• Addressing Trauma therapy and groups
• Think it Through Group focusing on Relationships
• PTSD Psycho-Education Group
• Dialectical Behaviour Structured Programme for Personality Disorder
• Meaningful activities programme
• Engagement in the community to promote independence and social inclusion
We have good links with the community to enable patients to undertake voluntary and paid work. We also have a focus on physical health, accessing pedal power and activities in the local parks and leisure facilities.
Bespoke Single Person Flats
At Heatherwood Court Hospital we also provide four bespoke single person flats, Cardiff Flats, which are aimed at those with highly complex needs who may have a mental health diagnosis or personality disorder alongside a mild learning disability and/or forensic needs, and require an outcomes-focused period of inpatient treatment and rehabilitation.
The individual flats are designed to a robust specification, with state-of-the-art features to ensure that the environment supports therapeutic engagement through minimising risk to the person and others and limits the need for restrictive interventions.
The flats suit those who require a specialist environment and a single person setting rather than a ward environment to ensure effective treatment outcomes.
In addition to the environment, patients supported in the four Cardiff Flats have access to intensive nursing and multidisciplinary therapeutic support alongside their own staffing support.
We work closely with the individual’s community and commissioning teams, their circle of support and other key stakeholders, such as MAPPA and MOJ as applicable.
Discharge – Moving On
We prioritise discharge planning, commencing on admission, to support movement through the care pathway and into a less restrictive environment.
During their stay with us we support each person to develop a Moving On Pack. This is a personally tailored tool to enable people to maintain and sustain their recovery in the community. It provides support and guidance on how to manage crisis and identify signs, how to prevent relapse, and how to succeed in the new placement alongside information on support in the community and signposting.
Patients leaving Heatherwood Court Hospital may step down within the Iris Care Group into our residential or supported living services across Wales and England.
Admission Criteria
At Heatherwood Court Hospital we support individuals over the age of 18 with severe and enduring mental health illnesses and/or personality disorder. This includes those who may be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (Amended 2007) or subject to Ministry of Justice conditions.
Low Secure Pathway
• Individuals stepping down from medium secure services, across from PICU, and the Criminal Justice System
• Primary diagnosis of enduring mental illness and/or Personality Disorder
• Secondary mild learning disability
• Autism or ADHD
• Forensic histories
Rehabilitation Pathway
• Women stepping down from secure services, across from PICU, and the Criminal Justice System
• Stepping up from the community
• Primary diagnosis of enduring mental illness and/or Personality Disorder
• Secondary mild learning disability
• Autism or ADHD
Single Person Flats
• Individuals stepping down from secure services, across from PICU and the Criminal Justice System, or directly from the community
• Primary diagnosis of enduring mental illness and/or Personality Disorder
• Secondary mild learning disability, Autism or ADHD
• May have forensic histories
• Complex needs which require support in a bespoke single person setting
We are able to support those who identify as transgender providing dedicated work around identity, success, and acceptance, aligned with our organisation’s inclusion policies.
Expert Team
Heatherwood Court Hospital has an experienced inhouse multidisciplinary team, which includes:
• Consultant Clinical Psychologists
• Consultant Forensic Psychiatrists
• Forensic Psychologists and Counselling Psychologists
• Assistant Psychologists
• Speciality Doctors and Responsible Clinicians
• Occupational Therapists
• Registered Mental Health Nurses and General Nurses
• Skills Tutor
• Gym Tutor
• Support Workers
Hospital Environment
Located in Pontypridd, close to Cardiff in South Wales, Heatherwood Court Hospital is a purpose-built hospital offering low secure pathways for men and women and rehabilitation for women across four single-gender units. We also provide four single person, high specification bespoke flats.
In a peaceful semi-rural location, along with the wards, the hospital features a range of communal dining spaces and lounges to encourage involvement in the hospital community and allow people to build positive relationships with their staff and peers.
Heatherwood Court Hospital offers each patient a single bedroom that is fully customisable to their preferences, as well as en-suite or shared bathroom facilities that meet their individual identified needs.
Facilities can also be equipped with specialist aides and adaptations for those with physical mobility issues or additional support needs.
With the goal of providing a proactive and engaging environment to support recovery and skills development, Heatherwood Court Hospital also offers facilities including:
• Therapy and Group Therapy rooms
• Onsite GP Clinic
• Arts Café
• Media and Games Room
• IT and Education Suite
• Gym
• Multifaith Room
• Occupational Therapy Kitchen
Outcomes
From the start, our service is outcome-focused with our patients, their families, and our commissioners in mind.
We aim to:
• Enable patients to effectively manage their mental health and recovery
• Ensure planned and timely discharge into the community
• Develop daily living skills and independence
• Promote effective behaviour management
• Reduce risk
• Ensure good physical health
• Develop social inclusion and improved self-worth
Iris Care Group
Heatherwood Court Hospital is part of Iris Care Group.
Iris Care Group provides the full pathway of services from specialist hospitals, Special Educational Needs College, residential and nursing homes, and supported living.
We regularly collect routine patient-reported outcome measures and patient-reported experience measures which include:
• Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL)
• EssenCes
• Therapy Experience Questionnaire
• Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS)
With services throughout South Wales and the South West and into the Midlands, we offer support to adults with mental health needs, learning disabilities, Autism and Acquired Brain Injury, including those with forensic histories.
Heatherwood Court Hospital
Llantrisant Road, Pontypridd
Rhondda Cynon Taf
CF37 1PL
Tel: 01443 490 380
referrals@iriscaregroup.co.uk
Iris Care Group Unit 1, Castleton Court, Fortran Road, St Mellons, Cardiff CF3 0LT
