Cygnet to open new CAMHS facility in Coventry

Cygnet Health Care is opening a new mental health hospital for children and adolescents in Coventry in response to rising demand for services in the West Midlands.

Cygnet Joyce Parker Hospital, named after a former Cygnet support worker who died earlier this year, will offer psychiatric intensive care and low secure environments with the aim of helping young people stabilise their condition and return home as soon as possible.

The new facility will include a ten-bed CAMHS psychiatric intensive care service, Mermaid Ward, which is due to open in October, and a two-bed emergency place of safety suite for young people experiencing severe mental illness.

Dragon Ward, which opens in early 2021, will provide a low secure service for young people who may need a longer stay, providing a treatment pathway for individuals with complex mental health issues, including co-morbid disordered eating.

In addition, the facility includes five individual flatlet pods for step-down care and an on-site Ofsted registered school, Summit school, alongside a bookable overnight accommodation for families and carers.

Paul Bentham, Cygnet’s CAMHS operations director, who will lead the new service, said: ‘The approach we’ve taken is genuinely innovative and we’ve involved people with personal experience of mental health problems, as well as carers and young people from Cygnet’s other CAMHS services in its development. The names of the wards and the school setting came from these young people. It is our aim is to create a high-quality service that will be emulated for the way it is helping young people on the road to recovery.’