First look inside new 18-bed female mental health ward at Parklands

Cherry Ward, at Parklands Hospital, is an 18-bed facility for female patients and will help ensure women in crisis receive the care they need closer to home.

As previously reported, the development represents an investment of £2.7m from the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust into expanding mental health services for people in Mid and North Hampshire.

Now, the Gazette has taken an early look at what the bespoke new building looks like, and spoken to some of the people behind it.

The state-of-the-art ward has been transformed from office space, with staff reallocated to other spaces on the site.

It includes meeting rooms, sensory zones, TV and communal areas, as well as a “recovery corridor” which helps prepare people for life outside of the unit, including a kitchen, art room and IT suite.

The bedrooms are all similar but slightly individual

The main aim of the project was to involve service users in the process from start to finish, to ensure their needs were met as much as possible.

Dr Vicki Osman-Hicks, clinical director for North and Mid Hampshire told the Gazette: “Just because you are on a mental health ward, doesn’t mean you’re not supported in your physical health too.

“It needs to be comfortable, you need to be able to walk around and restore a lot of your own routine.”

Dr Vicki Osman-Hicks

Beth Ford is a service user who lives with autism and paranoid schizophrenia.

She has spent several stints in Parklands, but enjoys working as the team’s user involvement manager, a liaison between service users and management.

Beth described how the new facility has been created with the needs of patients in mind.

“My role is to make sure that service users have a say in the running of the site,” she said.

“This year has been a crowning glory in achieving that, as we have managed to get more than 95 per cent of users’ suggestions into this site.

“This hasn’t been a corporate decision, this has been listening to our service users and staff. It’s not been about building a building that just looks good, but it’s purposeful, compassionate, and thinks of a person as a person.”

Beth spoke to more than 140 users specifically for this project, and hundreds more over the entire coronavirus period.

Beth Ford with her assistance dog, Biscuit.

She continued: “One of the biggest things is technology. A USB port seems obvious, but most of the time we miss it. It’s a lifeline, especially during Covid because of not doing visits.”

Other contraptions designed with user needs in mind were toilet roll holders and towel hooks which don't pose safety risk, as well as windows which have screens but can still be opened to allow fresh air, and adjustable radiators.

Small things make a real difference, and were key to the service users' needs

“If we hadn’t co-produced this with hundreds of service users, we wouldn’t have thought of the things that make a real difference,” said Beth.

Talking about the demand for an all-female ward, Beth added: “The need is not in terms of the amount of bodies, the need was for male and female separate spaces, and for care available close to home.

“We managed to cut our out-of-area placements to virtually nothing, but for some that’s near home, but not home. If you send someone to their Aunt’s house, it will be nice, but it’s not the same as your mum!”

As well as a ward with individual bedrooms and communal areas, the new facility also incorporates a “recovery corridor”, with an art room, IT hub, therapy room, and a kitchen.

“As we are starting to get in that recovery mode for going home, we need to make sure we are giving people a little bit more freedom, because what quite often happens is you go into hospital and then suddenly you are on your own,” said Beth.

The recovery corridor helps prepare people for life back at home.

Vicki added: “There’s no point in having the right tablets, but not having support for another part of your care that’s just as important.”

The ward will see its first patients later this month, while the next door facility is renovated, and the staff says it will be acting as additional accommodation from November, when an official opening will be held in celebration.