Dedicated mental health room for Royal Stoke A&E

A new, dedicated room has been created to help support patients with mental health problems who present in A&E at Royal Stoke. The room will provide a safe space for patients and staff to engage on a one-to-one basis and has been carefully designed following national guidelines from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine and The Royal College of Psychiatry.

Dr Hannah McKee, Specialty Doctor for Emergency Medicine, (pictured left),said: “The busy and often noisy environment in the emergency care centre can be distressing and sometimes exacerbate the difficult feelings that patients who present with mental health problems are experiencing. Our hope is that this dedicated room will help to provide a quiet and safe environment for such patients, whilst allowing staff from the emergency department and mental health liaison teams to assess and observe them.

“There are all sorts of reasons why a patient might benefit from use of the room. Perhaps someone has taken substances which are affecting their behaviour, they may present for the first time with mental health problems or they could be experiencing a relapse of a psychiatric condition.  Use of the room will be on a case-by-case basis and the decision to use it will be made by nursing staff and the clinician caring for the patient.”

The design of the room has patient safety as top priority. It includes two doors (neither of which can be locked from the inside), and a panic alarm, observation windows and specialist furniture have been installed, in addition to other essential modifications.