Adult acute and psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) services
Helping support patients with a wide range of mental health conditions in therapeutic and supportive environments.
Priory’s specialist inpatient acute and psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) teams are committed to providing the highest quality of care. We help support patients with a wide range of mental health conditions in therapeutic and supportive environments.
Having a national offer, allows us to better support the repatriation of patients who have had to go out of area for immediate access to specialist services. We have a compliment of local pathways to support patient flow, and we aim to ensure patients have greater access to beds nearer to their home We work closely with NHS colleagues to provide the least restrictive practice as possible and provide appropriate pathways across our services.
Service overview
- Highest quality of care for a wide range of mental health conditions
- Emergency placements 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Flexible treatment plans to meet individual needs
- Immediate focus on stabilisation and discharge planning for positive end goals
- Seamless transitions into higher dependency, community living, complex care services or back home, reflecting individual needs
Acute services
We work closely with referring provider trusts and local systems to achieve minimum lengths of stay for patients, and work collaboratively with discharge teams to strive for a smooth transition back into existing community services, or to a person’s home, where possible.
For more information on our acute services, including who we support, please click here.
PICU services
Our PICU services are adept at dealing with patients in a severe phase of illness, who can't be managed within an acute or high dependency unit (HDU) service. Our staff teams have extensive experience in managing high levels of disturbance, enabling our PICUs to admit from a variety of settings, including from other PICUs.
For more information on our PICU services, including details on who we can support, please click here.
Our approach
Our aim is to assist any person within our acute or PICU services to understand and treat their condition, using National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved interventions that help to recognise and prevent triggers for relapse. Our multidisciplinary teams encourage people to fully engage in all aspects of their recovery.
In our acute services, all treatment is flexible in order to meet requirements and personal circumstances. Treatment may include:
- Medication reviews
- Psychological intervention
- Management of self-harm and hostility
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) interventions, where appropriate
- Management of physical health care needs
- Formulating problems/diagnosis using a biopsychosocial model
- Crisis planning and relapse prevention
- Anxiety management
- Practical help with basics of daily living skills
- Problem solving
Referrals and admissions
We provide personalised treatment programmes in safe, calming and comfortable environments for those with the most complex of care needs.
Priory accepts referrals from a variety of public sector and independent organisations throughout the UK. These include:
- NHS provider trusts
- Local systems
- Community mental health teams
- High secure hospitals
- Medium secure hospitals
- Psychiatric hospitals
- Prisons and courts
- Social services and the police
All our hospitals have specific admission criteria relevant to the service and support they offer.
Same-day admission can be facilitated and we can assist in transferring the patient if needed. We can accept referrals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Urgent or out-of-hours appointments and admissions can be arranged immediately by telephoning our dedicated service centre.
Please note, unfortunately we are unable to take self-referrals for NHS services. For treatment to be funded through the NHS, this will need to be discussed with a GP or a care co-ordinator.
Downloads
Service overview
Contact us for help, referrals or more information
For further information on Priory services offered to the NHS, or to make a referral, please call our dedicated 24/7 customer service centre.