MODEL OF CARE
At Care in Mind, our specialist model is designed to provide a unique, integrated approach to mental health support within a residential setting.
The aim of our services is to:
- Promote independence
- Promote social inclusion
- Build resilience
- Support young people in rehabilitation and recovery
- Support engagement in community, educational and vocational activities
Our residential staff undertake considerable training to support them in managing complex mental health issues effectively, with specialist support provided by our team of clinicians.
Every young person has an allocated clinical nurse specialist and clinical psychologist and is under the care of a consultant psychiatrist. Each nurse and psychologist works across two homes, with a maximum caseload of 10 young people. This enables timely, individually tailored interventions to be delivered to young people, whilst ensuring robust engagement and involvement with the wider MDT and residential team to ensure continuity and consistency of care for all young people.
This approach enables us to support young people with high levels of complexity on their recovery journeys, through safe and clinically effective residential care.
Each young person has a structured weekly activity planner to support their engagement in meaningful activity in addition to their planned clinical interventions. Planners are designed to support the development of daily living skills as well as engagement in community and vocational activities.
There is a specific focus on supporting young people to achieve greater independence with shopping, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, laundry and self-care.
Effectively managing risk is essential to our model of care. Least restrictive practice and a therapeutic risk management approach are central in how we work with young people. We approach risk management in a collaborative way with our young people, co-producing STAR risk assessments and risk management plans.
Our aim is to support young people when taking risks for a more positive long-term gain, helping them to learn the skills to control their own emotions and behaviour and ultimately develop the responsibility to manage their own risks.
The principle of least restrictive practice is core to our ethos at Care in Mind. As such, we are proud to have pledged our support for the Restraint Reduction Network, to demonstrate our commitment to individualised care and working towards restraint-free environments for our young people.
Our “no restraint” policy allows for more respectful and thoughtful relationships with young people and avoids traumatisation and consequent escalations in risk.
Our clinical team includes our consultant psychiatrists, clinical nurse specialists, highly specialised clinical psychologists, art therapists and occupational therapist, who work out of our clinical hubs.
Structured Clinical Management (SCM-A)
Structured Clinical Management is an evidence-based multi-modal intervention combining individual and group sessions. At Care in Mind have we adapted SCM for adolescents (SCM-A). SCM-A aims to support young people to learn and implement skills in relation to:
- Managing relationships
- Tolerating emotions and impulse control
- Problem-solving
- Self-compassion and soothing
Psychological Therapies
The psychology teamwork in an eclectic way drawing on a range of evidence-based approaches, working with young people on an individualised basis to find the best approach for them based on their needs and placement goals. All our psychological interventions are informed by individual clinical formulation and are delivered in line with NICE guidelines.
Safewards is an evidence-based model that identifies factors influencing rates of conflict and containment and considers a range of mediating factors and interventions to support service users that may influence the dynamic. At Care in Mind, we have worked with the creators of Safewards to adapt it for the residential setting.
The model identifies ten key interventions to support staff and young people that are evidenced to have a significant impact on the reduction of conflict and containment:
- Soft Words
- Talk Down
- Positive Words
- Bad news mitigation
- Know each other
- Mutual help meetings
- Soothing methods
- Reassurance
- Clear and mutual expectations
- Discharge/positive messages
Each of our homes has links with local colleges and adult learning centres, and young people are encouraged and supported to access formal education. We recognise that the young people we work with have often experienced significant disruption to their education and may not be ready to engage an informal education setting.
With this in mind, Care in Mind homes are able to support young people in achieving accredited AQA modules in the home environment. Core modules focus on ADLs, vocational activities and independence skills, however, modules can also be built around individual needs and interests. The AQA scheme offers individuals to have their achievements recognised on an individual level and can be used to motivate and engage young people, raising their self-esteem and often acting as a useful stepping stone into formal education.