Description of placement
Number of beds: Bowness unit – Two 15-bedded mixed sex wards; Rockley House – 10-bedded domestic style rehabilitation unit.
Population served: Bowness – Females – Greater Manchester; Males – Bury, Salford, Trafford, North Manchester, Bolton and Wigan; Rockley – North west region
Number of consultants: 1.7 WTE’s

This is a post in Rehabilitation Psychiatry.

The role of the trainee
The trainee gains experience in two rehabilitation settings:

1) Bowness High Dependency Rehabilitation service – 30 bedded low secure rehabilitation unit for people with severe enduring mental illness and challenging behaviours.

2) Rockley House – 10 bedded domestic type hostel ward with high relational security for people with severe enduring mental illness and challenging behaviours.
Most of the people in the service have a diagnosis of a chronic psychotic condition and associated difficulties e.g. violence and aggression, self injurious behaviours, repeated absconsion, poor adherence with treatment, cognitive impairment, behaviours arising from histories of trauma.

The SpR is participatory member of a full multidisciplinary team. He/she takes a lead, under supervision of a small number of patients on the unit. He/she is involved in the assessment and development of care planning for the individual patients. He/she is also involved in the delivery of specific therapeutic interventions including psychological and social therapies. The trainee has opportunities to complete specific family interventions under supervision. The trainee is an active participant in staff support meetings and case formulation discussions. In addition the trainee gains experience in Mental Health Act work including writing MHRT reports, attendance at MHRT’s and Managers’ renewal meetings, and understanding of the practical aspects of the renewals procedures including consent to treatment.

The trainee has opportunities to understand the place of secure rehabilitation in the broader context of district rehabilitation services (including AOTs) and has opportunities to visit other interface services (PICUs, MSUs, prisons, private sector provision).

The trainee is encouraged to attend regular strategic managerial meetings and will be encouraged to attend a specific working group within the service to deliver a specific piece of development work .e.g. review of risk management procedures.

The trainee attends the monthly clinical audit group and leads on audit topics of their own choosing and that are relevant to the service.

The trainee has opportunities to contribute to SHO training and attends the local case conferences and journal clubs. The SpR is responsible for organising a monthly one hour In House training slot for staff on the unit.

On call: 1 in 8.

Core placement: No
A core placement on general psychiatry is linked to both in-patient and community settings to a defined catchment area and involves experience with a multidisciplinary team.