Designing better mental healthcare facilities

Mersey Care takes ownership of new Rowan View MSU on Merseyside

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust has taken ownership of the keys for Rowan View, its new ‘state-of-the art' medium secure unit on the Maghull Health Park on Merseyside.

Despite adjustments for safety work practices during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the 123-bed hospital has been handed over by contractors in the Kier Group just two years since the ground breaking for the ambitious project.

Elaine Darbyshire, Mersey Care’s executive director of Estates, said: “Rowan View represents a step change in care for service-users, preparing them for life beyond care. It looks and feels totally different from traditional mental health hospitals. More importantly, we believe the expertise and care delivered from here will be the best in the country ,if not beyond.”

A new model of care has been devised by senior clinicians, working with existing service- users, for the eight-ward unit. Mersey Care says that it will ‘deliver innovative treatments’ which will improve recovery times for forensic patients presenting with mental health and learning disabilities. “We’re delivering a radical reshaping of care,” added Mrs Darbyshire. “Our leading experts in forensic care from Mersey Care have visited services across the country to make sure the new development delivers the highest standards.”

The £60 million centre of excellence for forensic care, which includes en suite bathroom facilities for each room, has equal emphasis on transformative care for patients and a positive culture for staff. Innovations include immersive technology, sensory rooms, and ‘media walls’ (from Dutch company, Recornect), which will provide vulnerable patients with access to services and new forms of therapy, as well as aiding interactive training and staff wellbeing sessions. Service-users will have safe computer access to care plans, activity plans, ordering meals, viewing their personal photographs, and the ability to maintain contact with  family and carers virtually.

A café space also opens out into extensive flower gardens, plus recreational areas and places for quietness and reflection. Art and light displays which support calmness and relaxation have been created in consultation with people who use services, adding to a therapeutic experience of the building, which Mersey Care describes as ‘a world away from older models of mental healthcare.’

Dr Michael Gregory, Medical director for Commissioning in NHS England and NHS Improvement North West, said: “This is an excellent step forward in care for some of our most vulnerable patients, and we are delighted to see this impressive new facility coming together for Mersey Care and its service-users.”

Services for patients will begin in the autumn, replacing existing older facilities in the Mersey Care estate. Rowan View brings together expertise on a new site which already includes research and conference facilities, and will include a further development of a £33million low secure learning disability unit, currently going through the early stages of the approvals process.

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