About this location
Located in Norfolk near the market town of Attleborough, Priory Lombard House is a specialist level 2 rehabilitation service for males with a learning disability. Care also extends to a dual diagnosis of autism, personality disorder and mental health conditions, with or without a history of offending behaviour.
Services at a glance
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Priory Lombard House Anchor Corner Little Ellingham Attleborough NR17 1JY
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Services
Our comprehensive rehabilitation services provide support for people with complex mental health needs. We align our services with the recommendations of the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health (JCPMH), ensuring our patients are given the highest quality care to enable an appropriate transition back home or into community services, wherever possible.
Ward break down
- 7 beds within the main Lombard House
- 2 beds in our self-contained flats on-site
Conditions treated
We are able to support people with:
- Mental health needs
- Learning disability
- Personality disorders
- A forensic history
- Sexual offending, fire setting or other violence
We can also support people with the following challenges alongside their primary diagnosis:
- Autism
- Substance misuse
Treatment approaches
At Lombard House, we offer an individualised, person-centred approach to all of our patients.
Our service users are involved in all stages of their treatment pathway. We assess the effectiveness of our interventions using a range of measures related to both process-related outcomes (use of physical interventions, medications, frequency of community trips, range of activities provided and community/ home visits) and user outcomes.
Our assessment and treatment options are overseen by a full and diverse multidisciplinary team (MDT).
We offer:
- Diagnostic assessment
- Psychological formulation
- Risk assessments
- Positive behaviour support (PBS)
- Medication
- Physical healthcare
- Psychotherapy
- Offence-specific therapies
- Education, skills acquisition and occupational/vocational rehabilitation
- Community participation
We also provide:
- Drug and alcohol awareness course (DAAC)
- Sex Offender Treatment Services Collaborative - Intellectual Disability (SOTSEC-ID) programme
- Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) group
- Animal assisted interventions
- Speech and language therapy (SaLT)
- A range of opportunities designed to support the patients to develop or maintain their individual skills and abilities
- A chance to participate in purposeful, functional activities where they can achieve personal success and therefore raise their self-esteem
- A chance to for patients to gain more control and take responsibility for themselves
- Promotion of normal roles and routines within a structured programme, providing opportunities for life change
Length of stay is based on each individual’s needs and risks. This depends on each person’s index history, which may prohibit a move out of a hospital setting.
Our team
Our MDT is committed to working together as a team, with a good communication structure and a consistent approach to care. This means that we can maintain clarity of treatment goals and boundaries with patients. In addition, we recognise the importance of upholding patients’ rights as individuals, treating all patients with dignity and respect.
Our team consists of:
- Consultant psychiatrist
- Clinical psychologist
- Registered nurses (LD/RMN)
- OT and OT assistants
- Assistant psychologist
- Speech and language therapist (SaLT)
- A teacher
- Hospital director and ward manager
- A practice nurse for physical healthcare
- Patient finance support
- MHA administrator
- HR support
- Cleaning support staff
- Facilities and maintenance
- Dietitian
- GPs, dentists, opticians and chiropodists, when needed
All staff go through a thorough induction process, which includes attendance at statutory and mandatory training. New staff members are supported through a 3-month mentorship period. Staff are required to complete annual refresher courses on all mandatory/statutory training and additional training is provided for all staff working in the R&R service. This is delivered through training days held on a monthly basis. Staff are also given opportunities to access external training.
Therapeutic and community-based activities
We offer a range of therapeutic and community-based activities as part of a full treatment programme. We want to support people to become more confident and independent, preparing them to move through their treatment pathway towards community living.
Our therapeutic and community-based activities include:
- Support to develop regular engagement in meaningful and prosocial activities, both on the ward and in the community, including the exploration of cultural and spiritual preferences
- Activities to develop, support and maintain positive self-esteem, a sense of self-worth and independence, or learn new skills
- Attending religious services
- Daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping and budgeting, with support where necessary
- Organising social events including farewell parties and festive events
- Weekly occupational therapy meetings
- Representatives are nominated and elected by other residents to take part in monthly meetings, including clinical governance, reducing restrictive practice and physical health/engagement
- Therapeutic engagement activities
- Real work opportunities in the local community with charitable or non-profit organisations
- Educational programmes on and off-site
- The chance to work towards gaining accredited qualifications in lots of subject areas, including communication, IT, numeracy, literacy, horticulture and home management
Our facilities and environment
We believe that the environment in which treatment takes place is just as important as the treatment itself, when it comes to supporting our patients. We provide:
We have extensive gardens surrounding the property and are able to offer a calm and relaxing space within nature, and the option for patients to enhance their horticulture pursuits and use our fixed gym equipment.
Our bedrooms
Patients are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms while they are staying with us. We provide:
Exclusion profile
- People under the age of 18
- People who have not been mentally/behaviourally stable for at least 6 months and are not ready to engage in community rehabilitation activities
- People who display frequent and/or severe levels of physical aggression and require frequent or prolonged levels of physical intervention
- People who are unable to respond positively to verbal de-escalation, or manage their behaviour without the use of seclusion facilities
- People who have made a serious suicide attempt within the last year
- People who are not compliant with self-care and engagement in their treatment/therapy programme
- People who require prolonged periods of special observations
- People who are not able to engage with the CPA and MDT review processes
Pathways
Priory’s network of high-quality facilities enables us to offer joined-up care pathways with our dedicated residential services. We offer programmes which integrate healthcare treatment and therapy, which are tailored according to individual needs, in an appropriate setting. Our strength is that we can provide a seamless transition for the individual as they progress between higher and lower dependency services.
We have links with Priory Adult Care services in Norfolk, and will help people to step down to these services, where appropriate.
A message from our site leader
The Lombard team have a real passion here for identifying the best plan for encouraging each patient, in order to have a positive impact on their lifelong management plan. We have achieved and will continue to achieve excellent results from the service, as reflected in our Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating
Lombard House site leader
Information for family and friends
How do home visits work?
All home visits are managed on an individual basis, following risk assessment.
What is your visitation policy?
Visitors can make requests via the nursing staff, who will then make the appropriate visiting arrangements. It is asked that all visitors become familiar with the fire procedure and the signing-in book, which staff will make you aware of. A designated visiting area will be made available to you. Lombard is a no smoking site, therefore, it is requested that there is no smoking in the hospital or hospital grounds.
Will I be involved and kept up to date with my loved one’s care and wellbeing?
Yes, we make every effort to keep the loved ones of our residents involved in their care and we promote family and friends’ involvement. Anyone is welcome to visit site before an admission, as well as while the person is staying with us. Family and friends are kept updated via the care programme approach (CPA) meetings, the ward manager and the responsible clinician.
Will my loved one be able to have a phone or call me?
People staying with us have access to a pay phone, ward telephone and mobile/smart devices. They are encouraged to use all forms of telephone contact outside day activities/session times. A member of the nursing team will help patients to use the telephone, where necessary.
People can use the ward phone to call solicitors, social workers or other professionals involved in their care. This will happen by arrangement with the nurse in charge. Calls will sometimes be monitored by staff, when requested by the clinical team. We also ask patients to keep these calls to a minimum, as other people may need to use the ward telephone.
Patients’ family and friends may sometimes experience difficulties in contacting patients by telephone, particularly in the evenings. We apologise if this is your experience and ask you to be patient and persistent. As you will appreciate, evenings are times of high demand for the telephone system. We know how important it is for patients to be able to stay in contact with their family and friends. Many patients have a nursing care plan (NCP) to ensure that they contact, or are contacted by, their family and friends on specified days of the week.
What type of things are families expected to provide, and what is provided by the home?
On admission, the nurse will complete a list of personal property. This is called an inventory. This list will be kept up to date throughout each person’s stay at Lombard House. All personal belongings are risk assessed before they are allowed to have them in their room. Electrical items will need to be electrically safety tested before they can be used. This also applies to new purchases.
There is a limit to the number of items that can reasonably be stored in a person’s bedroom, due to space considerations. The following list is a guide only:
Entertainment:
- Television and DVD player, Freeview box, stereo
- Games console
- 100 discs (DVDs/CDs/console games)
Clothes:
- 15 pairs of trousers/shorts
- 15 blouses/shirts/t-shirts
- 15 jumpers
- 15 items of underwear
- 15 pairs of socks
- 10 pairs of shoes/slippers/sandals
Ornaments:
- 5 unbreakable ornaments (no glass or china)
- 3 photographs in frames. Any additional photos can be put in an album
- 5 cuddly toys
- 5 books or magazines (no newspapers)
- 1 pot plant
What are the bedrooms like?
All of our bedrooms are furnished, and people staying with us are supported to personalise them to suit their needs and wishes. If friends and family wish to provide further items for their loved ones’ bedroom, they will need to be checked with the clinical team. All bedrooms are single person rooms. Each person staying with us will have a key for their bedroom and can use their room outside of day activities and sessions. Locks are fitted to the inside of bedroom doors so that people can lock their doors if they want some privacy. However, staff can override these locks if required, for safety reasons. The nursing staff check on people at least once an hour, or more often if the clinical team states they need to, but they will always knock first before entering the bedrooms.
Are external doors kept locked?
All of our external doors are locked. However, every person staying with us will be individually assessed for any risks to see what security is needed.
What do service users eat and how do meal times work?
For the purpose of safety and minimising risks, people staying with us do not have automatic kitchen access. Some people have supervised access to the kitchen, subject to a thorough and comprehensive risk assessment of individual needs.
We provide healthy and nutritious food for everyone staying with us, while meeting people’s dietary or cultural needs.
How does laundry work?
People staying with us can either do their own laundry or are given support to do it.
Is there anything they can’t bring or have?
There are certain items that are not allowed to be kept by people during their stay. These include:
- Firearms and ammunition
- Weapons
- Alcohol
- Medicines, including over-the-counter and prescribed medicines
- Illicit drugs
- Solvents
- Pornography
- Materials which could incite racial hatred or violence
- Petrol and inflammable liquids, e.g. lighter fuel
- Matches/lighters
- Plastic bags, plastic cutlery and bin liners
- Blu Tack
- Chewing gum
- Digital recorders/video recorders/camcorders
- Fax equipment
- Pets
- Certificate 18 DVDs/videos
- Violent PlayStation and computer games (including Nintendo Wii games)
- Extension leads
- Metal coat hangers
Additional items may be added to this list; please always check with the nursing team when bringing items in, before they are given to the person staying with us.
Are pets allowed?
Patients are allowed to have their pets come to visit.
How do activities work?
Each person staying with us has activities planned out by the MDT to meet their needs.
Do service users and families have an input into the service user’s care plans?
All of the people staying with us and their families/friends actively involved in care planning, supported by their primary nurse and the wider MDT.
What are the car parking facilities?
There is free car parking on-site.
What is the smoking policy? Can service users buy cigarettes?
Lombard House is a no-smoking, no-vaping site.
How is treatment accessed and funded?
We don’t take referrals directly from individuals and families. Instead, the first step will be for you to reach out to the person’s GP so that they can be referred and funded through the correct NHS channel. Depending on the type of support needed, this could include local authority funding, NHS funding, joint funding between the local authority and NHS, or direct payments. Please note, referrals for NHS or local authority funded services must come from a referring organisation.
How to make a referral
Our customer service centre provides 24/7 support for NHS mental health enquiries and referrals. Our customer referral co-ordinators can support you from your first call right through to the enquiry conclusion, providing updates throughout the process. We offer 24/7 crisis referrals, fast access to bed availability and placements, and a single access point for end-to-end enquiry management.