“We put children and young people at the heart of all that we do”

Potters Bar

CAMHS Service

What we provide

Potters Bar Clinic offers CAMHS Tier 4 low secure services for young people aged 13 to 18 with a wide range of disorders and complex needs.

Our aim is to deliver, treat and empower each young person to live a safe and independent life and reach their individual potential.

Environment

Our 18 bedded inpatient unit is set over two wards and offers a safe and nurturing environment to support and aide recovery. The young people are encouraged to individualise their own en-suite bedrooms in order for them to feel comfortable and at home.

Each ward has a communal living space, dining area, quiet room and laundry, to give the young people the opportunity to socialise with their peers, be as independent as possible in an environment where they do not feel isolated.

Onsite we have an Ofsted registered school to enable the young people to continue with their schooling whilst in treatment. This helps to ease re-integration/transition to home or the community when they are ready for discharge. Each young person will have their own individual education programme.

Approach

We have a dedicated multi-disciplinary team for each ward, providing person centre care that is tailored to meet each individuals needs and to support them through their journey with us.

We deliver a Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) based Milieu that focuses on the four core skill areas, mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulations and interpersonal effectiveness. Through the practice of DBT we aim to equip the young people with coping skills that will increase resilience, reduce self-injury and enable them to monitor, regulate and manage their emotions.

Young people are also given the opportunity to engage in other appropriate therapeutic programmes such as family and trauma therapy.

Admission Criteria

Aged 13 -18
Mixed gender
Detained under Part II or Part III of the Mental Health Act 1983
Cannot be safely managed in an open environment, does not require a medium secure setting, and is assessed as having needs than cannot be managed by shorter term admission to a PICU and either
May be under a restriction order by the Ministry of Justice
May present a risk of harm to others or themselves or suffers from a behavioural disturbance that requires inpatient care, specialist risk management procedures and a specialist treatment intervention