About this location
Priory Stockton Hall is a long-serving medium secure hospital based in a quiet but well-connected village near the historic city of York. It serves the local Provider Collaborative and multiple National Collaboratives, depending on clinical need, and has had a long-running record of successful patient pathways.
Services at a glance
Contact us
Priory Stockton Hall The Village Stockton-on-the-Forest York YO32 9UN
Map
Click here to enable this content
Services
Our secure services offer comprehensive support to people with complex mental health needs. We model our service provision on the NHS secure service specification for medium and low secure services, ensuring our patients are given the highest quality of care to enable quick and smooth transitions into local services, wherever possible. We are committed to delivering clinically effective, evidence-based treatment programmes for individuals who require secure care, providing both psychological and physical security.
Ward break down
- 12-bedded female ward
- 12-bedded learning disability and autism ward with comorbid mental illness and complex needs and risks
- 8-bedded learning disability and autism ward with comorbid mental illness and complex needs and risks
- 72 beds providing care for patients with mental illness and comorbidities
- 8-bedded ward which allows for a slower pace of rehabilitation
- 12-bedded ward for males with diagnostic comorbidity difficulties in prison, requiring treatment, stabilisation, and remittal
- 12-bedded ward for male patients with mental illness and complex physical health comorbidities
Conditions treated
We are able to support people with:
- Complex mental health needs
- Behaviours that challenge
- Severe and enduring mental health needs
- Personality disorders (cormorbid diagnosis)
- Autism
- Psychosis
- Sexual offending behaviour
- Substance misuse or forensic addictions
- Intellectual Disabilities and Autism with comorbidities
- Focusing on assessment of complex needs including offending behaviours and risk management
Treatment approaches
At Stockton Hall, we offer an individualised, person-centred approach to all of our patients.
Our services have produced excellent recovery results for those who stay with us and they are able to progress to low secure or locked rehabilitation if possible. We run a therapeutic programme to help patients to develop coping strategies, increase skills and resilience and enable patients to access the community to maximise their recovery potential.
We aim to provide further opportunities for patients to improve their wellbeing through skills development workshops and discussion groups, which we have used to develop various podcasts covering topics such as mental health stigma, autism and mental health awareness, as well as general discussions about sports and music.
Our learning disability and autism wards are NAS accredited (National Autistic Society). They recognise the excellent, safe, responsive and caring environment and practices that support patients. The care and treatment reviews have also highlighted multiple areas of good practice and this is in recognition of the care and innovative care pathways and reduction in multiple transitions into non-secure services.
Emphasis is always on safety and we instil a responsive, caring and well-led culture that’s supported by a clinical governance meeting framework. This is further supported by safe medicine management and a responsive and vigilant pharmacy system.
Our assessment and treatment options are based on trauma-informed principles and are overseen by a full and diverse multidisciplinary team (MDT).
We offer:
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Substance misuse awareness and treatment programme
- Motivation for change programme (chances to change)
- Personality disorder awareness programme
- Mental health awareness programme
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
- Compassion focused therapy (CFT)
- Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)
- Occupational therapy (OT)
- Managing anger programme
- Schema therapy
- Mindfulness
Therapy can be delivered in either groups or on an individual basis, and are tailored to a patient's specific needs, for example, for those with learning disability and/or neuro-disability, to ensure that responsivity issues are accounted for. As a specialist service, we offer bespoke interventions to help individuals develop insight into their neuro-diversity and skills to help them navigate the wider community.
Ward based coping skills groups are also offered for those patients who struggle to engage with more formal, structured interventions. As part of our trauma-informed approach, staff wellbeing and resilience is a key priority at Stockton Hall. We recognise the likely impact of our work and seek to help staff develop their psychological understanding of patients through reflective practice and psychological based formulation discussions, to ensure they provide the best quality care to patients. Staff are supported through a robust debriefing process that also enables learning to be made and shared through the hospitals patient safety forum and governance processes, to ensure lessons learnt are cascaded and communicated to all.
We also offer shorter, skills-based groups aimed at promoting wellbeing and positive coping skills, on the wards and via our recovery college. These include:
- Mindfulness skills
- Interpersonal effectiveness skills
- Distress tolerance skills
- Emotion regulation skills
Our clinical team
Our team consists of:
- Occupational therapists (OT)
- Consultant Psychologists
- Physical health nurses and mental health nurses
- Advanced clinical practitioners
- Healthcare assistants
- Fitness instructors
Therapeutic and community-based activities
Patients are offered a range of therapeutic and community-based activities as part of a full treatment programme to support them to become more confident and independent, preparing them to move through their treatment pathway towards community living if appropriate.
Occupational therapists will undertake patient-centred assessments to identify meaningful occupations, which promote a patient’s recovery and rehabilitation.
The occupational therapist will assess a patients functional performance in completing a range of activities of daily living, including providing advice on specialist equipment the patient may require to have better long-term outcomes in functional rehabilitation, independent living, and overall quality of life.
Therapeutic and community-based activities include:
- Real work opportunities and vocational opportunities
- Domestic skills, including cooking
- Community reintegration skills
- Fitness and leisure activities
- Patient run café and shop
- Woodwork
- Gardening
- IT skills
- Art
Patients at Stockton Hall are supported to access education sessions both on the ward and in the community.
A range of formal and informal learning is available, including access to a media suite for online learning opportunities.
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:
- Cafe
- Kitchen and dining room
- Games Room
- Horticulture workshop
- Shop
- Garden
- Living rooms
- Relaxation spaces
- Communal areas
Our garden offers secure fencing, a lawn, a shelter, planting areas and gardening activity areas.
Our bedrooms
All of our bedrooms are single-occupancy and have an en-suite bathroom. We provide:
- Windows with a view
- Safe rooms
- Desk
- TV's
Exclusion profile
- Those not detained under the MHA
- People under the age of 18
- Patients with a brain injury
- Individuals with dementia
Pathways
Alongside remittals back to prisons, we have a strong track record of discharging patients promptly into the least restrictive environments, often supporting individuals with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities to transition into the community with the appropriate care packages.
Our well-established connections with Low Secure and Locked Rehabilitation pathways, both within and outside of Priory, ensure seamless transitions for our patients.
Additionally, we have access to Bespoke Therapeutic Placements, aligning with Priory’s vision of delivering comprehensive care pathways.
These pathways provide tailored provisions at all levels of care, facilitating patient progress into community living.
A message from our site leader
At Stockton Hall, we appreciate how difficult it is for families and patients when they are detained in hospital. We are proud to provide the best care and treatment in the least restrictive manner, to enable individuals to live their lives to the fullest
Stockton Hall site leader
Information for family and friends
How do home visits work?
We will work with people staying with us and their relatives to ensure possible risks are managed and that everyone is supported.
Will I be involved and kept up to date with my loved one’s care and wellbeing?
Relatives may speak or write to the relevant MDT, with the patient’s permission, and can be involved in aspects of their loved one’s care.
Will my loved one be able to have a phone or call me?
Regular telephone contact with relatives and close friends can be maintained by using phones on the ward.
What are the bedrooms like?
All wards are single sex and all bedrooms are en-suite. People staying with us are able to keep, use and access their own property, as long as it is safe to do so and does not present a security risk. However, the hospital has limited storage space and cannot accept large items or large quantities of property that do not fit into the person’s overhead locker in their bedroom. Each bedroom is equipped with fitted furniture and a TV.
Are external doors kept locked?
All of our external doors are locked.
What do service users eat and how do meal times work?
Meals are cooked fresh on-site by the hospital’s catering department.
How does laundry work?
The hospital has its own laundry as well as providing laundry facilities for people to use on their own wards.
Is there anything they can’t bring or have?
We have a restricted and prohibited items list, which is reviewed and updated regularly. This can be seen on request, and is provided to patients and their carers.
Are pets allowed?
No pets are not allowed on-site.
How do activities work?
The hospital provides a range of services to extend, maintain or develop patients’ skills and interests. These services are accessed following an assessment by an OT. There are also ward-based activities that may be carried out by an activity organiser and nursing staff. These activities are varied in nature and do not require a referral. Each ward has its own television lounge and dining room that can be used for these purposes.
There is a strong programme of vocational skills training and real work opportunities for those people who are interested in developing their work skills and work experience. Real work opportunities include working in the hospital shop and café for specific periods of time. The service is currently exploring options of extending work placements into the community for future development.
Do service users and families have an input into the service user’s care plans?
People staying with us have input into their care plans, and their families can also be involved if the patient consents to this.
What are the car parking facilities?
There is free car parking on-site.
What is the smoking policy? Can service users buy cigarettes?
Stockton Hall Hospital is a smoke-free environment. Smoke-free means the non-use of conventional cigarettes, related tobacco products and e-cigarettes and vapes. This is in line with the government initiative and NHS England. It means that for people staying with us and staff, there is no smoking at all on the hospital site. Non-compliance with this legal requirement may result in prosecution.
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.