Priory Hospital Solihull is a 31-bedded mental health rehabilitation service for a males and females aged 18 and over. The service is arranged across three separate wards and is for patients who have severe and enduring mental illness, which might include treatment resistant conditions.

• Arley Ward – 10-bedded female longer-term rehabilitation ward, which consists of 10 en-suite bedrooms and has access to a large garden. Arley Ward functions as a complete rehabilitation pathway for our female patients, comprising features of both the high dependency unit (HDU) and community rehabilitation unit
• Elkin Ward – 10-bedded male HDU, which consists of 10 en-suite bedrooms and introduces community facing skills. On Elkin Ward we focus on the development of relapse prevention skills and symptom management to maintain improvements and support patients to progress with their community reintegration
• Millison Ward – 11-bedded male community rehabilitation unit which is situated over 2 floors offering 11 en-suite bedrooms. On Millison Ward we provide the opportunity to practice independent living skills and focus on engagement outside of the hospital in order to complete the transition into the community

Our approach

Priory Hospital Solihull is a place where patients are part of the team. We work together to build patients confidence and skills to rejoin a meaningful place in the community, or just as often, start afresh. We intend for all care plans to be co-produced and we work with patients and carers to help them define and achieve their recovery goals through the MDT process. We aim for the patient’s voice to be at the centre of all that we do and we hold weekly community meetings on each ward, attended by both patients and staff, at which the patient experience is explored and improvements suggested.

We have a rehabilitative environment and work in a culture of positive risk taking. We use clinical formulation to develop a comprehensive understanding of our patient group, informing on treatment and risk management decisions. We strive to empower our patient group to develop sustainable community links so as to promote longstanding recovery. We adopt a culture of positive behavioural support to reduce behaviours that may be detrimental to patient recovery. We can manage episodes of challenging behaviour but our model of care and environment is not designed to manage consistent high risk behaviours.

We offer a wide range of evidence based treatment and therapeutic interventions provided by a diverse and expert multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and use a range of outcome measures to assess progress through the service.  We support our patients to create daily structure aligned to their personalised monthly timetables, and to set meaningful holistic recovery goals. All patients will be offered therapeutic interventions as considered relevant to their clinical need. These will commonly include:

Structured occupational therapy assessment and targeted intervention

• Cooking
• Budgeting
• Vocational support
• Social skills development
• Living space management
• Using public transport

Managing the core mental illness

• Mental health awareness
• Relapse prevention (including developing a Wellness Recovery Action Plan)
• Substance misuse (including developing a Substance Misuse Action Plan)
• Positive behavioural support
• Medication management
• Mindfulness

We offer the wellbeing project, an intervention which has been developed at Priory Hospital Solihull to be co-facilitated by psychology and occupational therapy services. It directs patients to learn about topics important to rehabilitation such as hygiene, healthy relationships, communication, emotions, coping mechanisms and drug misuse.

Where relevant, patients may also be referred for:

• CBT (affect/anxiety/psychosis)
• Anger management
• Sleep hygiene
• Cognitive assessment

Physical health needs are met by the on-site medical team and in liaison with our partner GP surgery. Patients may access physiotherapy, dietician and SaLT services through Primary Care

Focus on Safety

Our absolute priority is to make sure we operate safe and effective services 24/7 and that all staff understand what is required of them to make that happen. Click here to read more.

The environment

We want the best for people in our care and we place great importance on outcomes and quality of life. We look at what can be achieved for each person, their abilities, best interests and needs, and work within a positive environment to encourage confidence, bring structure, inclusion and opportunity in life.

Facilities include:

• En-suite bedrooms
• Large living spaces
• Purpose-built therapy suite with on site gym
• Rehabilitation kitchens
• Horticultural areas
• Woodwork workshop
• Outside area for sports, activities and events

Although male and female patients will be nursed on separate wards, we anticipate interactions between the two groups during certain therapeutic activities, community leave and social events.