Humber NHS Foundation Trust awarded multi-million pound contract to develop new mental health inpatient unit for children and young people @HumberNHS

Humber NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded a multi-million pound contract to develop a new mental health inpatient service for children and young people. 

The Trust will establish an 11-bed unit for 13 to 18-year-olds from Hull, the East Riding and North and North-East Lincolnshire after signing a 10-year deal with NHS England.

Aimed at treating illnesses such as depression, psychoses, eating disorders, anxiety and emerging personality disorder, the facility will be located in central Hull.

Michele Moran, Chief Executive, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity to provide an inpatient unit for our children and young people.

“Those who are experiencing acute distress have told us time and time again that it is vitally important for them to have easy access to this type of specialist help.

“To be given responsibility for providing it is a great honour and I promise we will work hard to provide an outstanding service.”

The new service, commissioned following a continuing national review of specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), will provide general adolescent and psychiatric intensive care beds.

It will complement the work of the Trust’s community-based Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), which have transformed and improved the care they provide during the past two years.

The inpatient unit will support the community teams’ work by offering intensive support when it is needed, reducing the length of admissions by keeping patients close to the people and resources who support their recovery.

Paul Warwick, Project Clinical Lead, said: “We have worked closely with young people and their families to understand their needs and how they want the new unit to look and feel.

“It is very important to us that the voice of young people has a strong presence in any new service and we will continue to work together to ensure we get it right.”

The new unit will be a key part of an interconnected system of mental health support.

Peter Flanagan, Care Group Director for Children and Learning Disabilities, said: “The Trust is very clear that we cannot make this happen by acting alone.

“We have already had excellent support from operational partners including The Goodwin Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Mind, Smash and The Warren.

“In addition, it has to be acknowledged that local families have provided persistent and persuasive support for this project for a number of years – and that support has been invaluable.”