Kneesworth House Hospital offers purpose-built services with medium secure, low secure, and both locked and open rehabilitation opportunities. Based in Hertfordshire in spacious grounds, Kneesworth House Hospital offers a range of specialist recovery pathways, all at one site.

Our approach

Kneesworth House is in the unique position, as a multi-faceted service, to offer complete discharge pathways to its patients. All patients are offered a 12-week individualised treatment timetable, which includes a range of clinical therapies and specialist multidisciplinary team input.

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.

Rehabilitation and recovery services

We provide gender-specific locked and open rehabilitation services, with a key focus on developing skills for independence, supporting patients to understand their own relapse prevention strategies and reintegration back into community settings.

Our male service is split across three wards:

• Nightingale Ward – 17-bedded locked rehabilitation for acutely unwell patients
• Wortham Ward – 17-bedded locked rehabilitation for those who may require a lower stimulus environment
• The Bungalows and Swift House – 4-bedded wards which provide support in a less restrictive environment, allowing for positive risks to be taken to support a patient to be formally discharged from hospital

Our female service is split across two wards:

• Fairview Ward – 6-bedded, low stimulus, locked rehabilitation setting
• Bungalow 65 – 4-bedded open ward which supports patients in a less restrictive setting

Secure and step-down services

Male learning disability service

• Bungalow 69 – open rehabilitation

Male mental health services:

• Ermine – medium secure service (mental illness)
• Clopton – medium secure personality disorder (PD) service
• Orwell – low secure
• Nightingale – inpatient locked rehabilitation unit
• Wortham – inpatient locked rehabilitation unit
• Swift – open rehabilitation houses
• Bungalows 63 and 67 – open rehabilitation

Female mental health services:

• Wimpole – low secure mental health and PD service
• Fairview – inpatient rehabilitation unit with 6 beds
• Bungalow 65 – open rehabilitation with 4 beds
• Bourn – acute unit with 12 beds

Kneesworth House offers a wide range of clinical therapies, based on individual needs and assessment. Therapies are delivered both individually and on a group basis. Therapies include:

• Substance misuse treatment programme
• Management of sexual problematic behaviour programme: Developing New Me Part I Foundation Programme and Staying Strong Part 2 Treatment Programme
• Fire setting treatment group: Developing New Me Part I Foundation Programme and Part 2 Treatment Programme
• Various psychoeducational and skills-enhancing group programmes
• Violence offending interventions
• Various therapeutic models in individual therapy such as dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and schema therapy

Psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU)

Kneesworth House provides a female PICU service for individuals who present with significant and continued risk to themselves or others. They may also have a high absconding risk in non-secure acute environments.

This service is a 24 hours a days, 7 days a week emergency ward and patients can be admitted from A&E, the judicial system, other PICUs, community services and other mental health settings.

Learning Disability and Autism Programme (LDAP)

As a specialist rehabilitation and recovery service, Priory Avalon also supports the LDAP Agenda. To learn more, please click here to read our full Learning Disability and Autism Programme (LDAP) guide.