A new Hospital at Home service is going to provide an alternative to psychiatric hospital care for young people who have a moderate to severe learning disability or a severe degree of functional impairment associated with an autism diagnosis.

This in line with the Provider Collaborative objectives providing care close to home, reducing admissions, length of stay, waiting times and provides earlier discharge from inpatient care.

It will be led by Hayden Stothard, who is a dual registered Learning Disability and Mental Health Nurse and Interim Service Manager developing the Tier 4 CAMHS Thames Valley Provider Collaborative Learning Disability and Autism (LDA) Hospital at Home Service, with Kindy Mahal, Consultant Psychiatrist in Learning Disability and Penny Foley, the team’s new Modern Matron.

Hayden said:

“From talking with our stakeholders and working with patients accessing tier 4 care, we know that many young people with a learning disability or autism are often admitted to psychiatric hospital when their home or community placement has broken down during a crisis.”

“Alongside the young person’s community of support, as the ‘Learning Disability and Autism Hospital at  Home’ Team, we will work intensively and practically with the young person, their families, carers and agencies, over a short period of time to stabilise and enhance the care being offered.

“Our goal is to enable the least restrictive care possible, however we recognise that hospital may be the best option in some circumstances. We would therefore work with the hospital staff and community services to minimise unnecessary delays to discharge.”

Hayden and Penny are beginning recruitment of the new multi-disciplinary team over the coming months and would welcome anyone interested in joining the team contacting them at at penny.foley@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk