This service works with young people up to the age of 18 only.

For those turning 18 while in our care, a smooth transition to adult mental health services will be supported.

Transition from our service is considered and planned for throughout our work. This is increased to support the needs of those close to turning 18.

We provide a highly specialised Tier 4 service. This is for young people who are at the greatest risk of rapidly declining mental health and require a period of intensive support.

We are not an alternative to working with community CAMHS teams. Community teams will only refer a young person to our service if they can no longer support their needs within the community.

We are an alternative to inpatient services. Patients receive the same high level of specialised support they would receive on an inpatient unit. This includes a wide team of professionals including a psychiatrist, psychologists, mental health and learning disability nurses, a speech and language therapist, a behaviour specialist, and an occupational therapist.

No, unlike an inpatient unit, there will not be professionals present in a young person’s home 24/7.

Support is based on the young person’s needs. This is decided after detailed assessment, and input from them, their family and local community services.

Our goal is to provide the right support for the young persons’ needs. This may be as short as a couple of hours a day or potentially between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Whilst many people associate the word ‘hospital’ with physical health care, in Learning Disability and Autism Hospital at Home services, it refers to highly specialised mental health care.

The team adopts a whole person approach to mental health. Our psychiatrist and nurses support young people with:

• general wellbeing checks
• monitoring side effects of medication
• ruling out physical health as a factor in their mental health decline.

To ensure they are receiving suitable care, the team may also consult with other medical professionals within the young person’s network.

Whilst we work with young people who are at a crisis point with their mental health, we are not a crisis service.

Our operational hours are 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.

For out of hours support, we create clear individualised plans of support with local crisis services. These outline who exactly to contact for support, and when.

Our team supports the most vulnerable young people. They will have a diagnosed severe to moderate learning disability and/or a severe degree of functional impairment associated with an autism diagnosis.

They will also be experiencing a rapid decline in their mental health and be at risk of inpatient admission.

Our service is not suitable for those with a mild learning disability or for all autistic young people.

For more details, see out Who we support? tab.

We aim to be as flexible as possible to support the diverse needs of our young people.

Regular in person contact, particularly with our nursing team, is an essential part of the support we provide. This may, in addition to face-to-face contact, include online meetings depending upon the needs of the young person.

The young people we work with are extremely vulnerable. It’s important that our team regularly assess their risks, ensuring the right support for them is offered. This helps keep them safe.