Beacon Centre Professionals

Caring for young people at the Beacon Centre

There are professionals of lots of different disciplines at The Beacon Centre. During a young person's admission they will work with different professionals depending on their needs.

Nursing Team

The nursing team comprises of health care assistants/group workers and qualified nurses. They support the young people 24 hours a day 7 days a week. On admission each young person will be allocated a named nurse, associate nurse and a key worker. The young person will meet with a member of their core team at least once a week to discuss treatment at the Beacon and anything that is going well or not so well and any issues that have arisen since they have been on the unit.

The nursing team is led by Deputy Ward Managers, who are more senior nurses and the Ward Manager and Modern Matron are responsible for the overall management of the unit in consultation with senior colleagues.

Consultant Psychiatrist

The Consultant is the responsible clinician within the hospital. As they are medically qualified, they can do thorough assessments of mental health and other relevant areas, prescribe medication jointly in agreement with the young person and their families, depending on condition, if needed. They also look after the overall care and treatment of the young person from admission to discharge and plan together with them and their families on every step of the way. They also communicate with all other professionals and agencies involved so that the care of the young person admitted is well coordinated and The Consultants are supported by a Specialty CAMHS Doctor and Trainee Doctors.

Specialty Doctor/s

The specialty doctors, also known as ward doctors, will take care of the young person's day to day physical health needs. They work alongside the Consultant and are responsible for taking your blood tests, running ECGs and conducting a weekly medical review with the young person.

Clinical Psychologist

The role of the Psychologist is to provide psychological assessment. From their assessment, they will make recommendations and tailor their intervention to meet the needs of the young person. Several factors may influence the type of intervention and duration, namely length of admission, current engagement with community psychological services and young person’s willingness and ability to engage.

Family Therapy

Family Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that may involve one family member, a whole family or several family members. The young person and family members have the opportunity to draw a genogram of their family and identify those factors which have in the past or are still contributing to the mental health difficulties of the young person. Family Therapy can be helpful if a family is having difficulties getting along or when one family member has presented with difficulties and family relationships may be contributing to or maintaining the difficulties. Sometimes, Family Therapy can be helpful in supporting parents to understand the young person’s difficulties better. In any case, this type of therapy is an opportunity to help the family get together and work systemically as a team to produce change to unhealthy patterns and alleviate issues.

Occupational Therapy (OT)

The Beacon Centre's Occupational Therapists aim to help young people by supporting them to develop their confidence and promote their independence. This is often in areas of self-care, leisure and other productive roles. OT interventions may include helping to develop skills and working together to identify goals either through one to one or group work. The Beacon's OT team produce a new ward programme every week and run groups on the ward Monday to Sunday. Young people will be allocated an OT on arrival to the ward who will work with them to put together an individualised timetable to use in conjunction with the ward programme.

Social Worker

Social workers at the Beacon centre work alongside the team to support with any social care needs of our young people. They will also share relevant information to Children’s services as part of working in partnership and attend meetings that require social care input. In addition, they will work together with the hospital team and external agencies on discharge plans for the patients to ensure there is support in place.

Administrative Personnel

We have a dedicated team of administrators who are essential in the management of the service and you will meet often when visiting the service at reception. We assist with supporting the MDT and the main portal for communication exchange between parents/ carers and the inpatient team.

Other therapeutic support

We also have Music and Art Therapy, both offering one to one and group sessions. These therapies can offer another way to express and manage difficult emotions and thoughts. The service also has access to dieticians and speech and language therapists which we can refer to on an individual basis.

The unit has a structured weekly therapeutic timetable offering a variety of groups to meet the needs of the young people. This includes educational sessions, psycho-educational sessions such as Coping Skills or workshops such as ‘sticky situations’. The timetable also offers opportunity to engage in cooking, creative sessions, physical activity, outings and group walks. There is also time made for young people to have free time. This is imperative for them to develop the skills of being able to manage and occupy their own time as a coping strategy for when discharged from hospital.

Teachers

The teachers at Northgate School are committed to working with young people to reengage in learning, liaising with mainstream schools and supporting parents/carers in identifying further education providers.

The Core Team

Whilst there is a large team at The Beacon Centre, each young person will have a “Core Team”. This will consist of medical, nursing, therapy and social workers where required. This team of professionals will be most informed about your child’s care; these will be the professionals at CPA meetings. Your child will be allocated a ‘Care coordinator’ who will be the point of contact for any concerns regarding your child whilst they stay at Beacon Centre.

Care Programme Approach (CPA)

This is a meeting where all professionals involved in the young person’s care, both in hospital and in the community, meet with the young person and their parents/carers to assess the young person’s needs and make plans together on the best way to help and support them moving forward towards discharge from hospital.