Guidance

How to plan new medium secure psychiatric units

This will assist those planning new medium secure units or extensions to existing ones.

From:
Department of Health and Social Care
Published
2 January 1997

This publication was withdrawn on

The Design Guide: Medium secure psychiatric units is on the NHS website.

Applies to England

Documents

Design Guide: Medium Secure Psychiatric Units

PDF, 1.5 MB, 42 pages

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Details

The guide concerns, in particular, medium secure in-patient facilities which, together with their “outreach” services, provide mainly for mentally ill patients, and some with psychopathic or personality disorder, assessed as likely to respond to relatively short-term (that is, up to about two years’ maximum) care and treatment.

The guide supersedes the DHSS Design Guidelines of July 1975 on “Regional Secure Units”. It should assist those planning new medium secure units or extensions to existing ones. It takes account of experience with existing units, including an evaluation commissioned by the Department of Health, which was undertaken in the summer of 1992 by a multi-disciplinary team.

Published 2 January 1997