Crisis Houses & Safe Havens - Kent & Medway

This service is for the provision of a Crisis Houses service.The objectives of this project are to commission two Adult Mental Health Crisis Houses inKent and Medway. These crisis houses will be for when someone is experiencing a period ofacute psychological distress, associated with a mental health problem (which may or maynot have been given a formal diagnosis). The crisis may be a sudden deterioration of anexisting mental health difficulty or they may be experiencing mental health difficulties for thefirst time. They need immediate treatment and/or care and/or support in order to preventfurther deterioration in their mental or physical wellbeing and to help avoid hospitaladmission.The rationale for the development of this service centres around how it can:1) Provide positive outcomes for people in Psychological or Mental Health Crisis who requireurgent and intensive support.2) Provide an alternative to an Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Admission3) Reduce impact on the wider Mental Health Urgent and Emergency Care services (LiaisonPsychiatry, Rapid Response, Home Treatment, Section 136 Health Based Place of Safety.Inpatient Services)Delivered by the VCSE a Crisis House is a service that offers short-term residential mentalhealth crisis interventions and support for a duration of up to 7 days, for individuals who areexperiencing mental health crisis. Analysis of local NHS Mental Health inpatient admissionsevidences a cohort of inpatients whose needs could be met in a Crisis House as analternative to inpatient admission which will offer significant benefits to service users. Crisis Houses can prevent possible hospital admission and ensure only those who are acutelyunwell or at very high risk of suicide are admitted to hospital. Crisis Houses are embeddedwithin a number of ICSs, with a number of positive outcomes including high service usersatisfaction and decreased reliance upon acute inpatient admission. Underpinning thephilosophy of Crisis House provision is social inclusion and linking with the wider VCSEservice provision.

The service is for the provision of Safe Havens across Kent & MedwayThe objective of this project is to commission 9 Safe Havens across K&M, 2 of which will be open 24/7 and co-located within a General Acute Hospital site. Individuals can stay up to 24hrs in the 2 co-located Safe Havens. This will enable 24/7 provision across the County.Psychiatric Liaison Mental Health Triage Nurses can redirect individuals attending Emergency Departments (ED) with primary mental health problems who do not require a physical health intervention. The 7 community based safe havens will be open 7 days a week from 18.00 – 23.00 providing out of hours support for people in a self-defined crisis who are likely to have called 999 or 111 and been conveyed or directed to or self-presented at A&E for mental health assessment.The service specification has developed as part of the Kent and Medway Provider Collaborative partnership with agencies and services across the Kent and Medway System, including: -• VCSE Organisations• Acute Hospital Trusts, EKHUFT, MTW, DVH and MFT• Mental Health Provider Trust• Kent Police• South East Coast Ambulance Services• Placed Based Health Care PartnershipsThe rationale for the development of this service centres around how it can:1) Provide positive outcomes for people in Psychological or Mental Health distress who require urgent emotional support.2) Provide an alternative to attending A&E3) Reduce impact on the wider Mental Health Urgent and Emergency Care services (LiaisonPsychiatry, Rapid Response, Home Treatment, Section 136 Health Based Place of Safety.Inpatient Services)4) Reduce impact on ‘Blue Light’ services, specifically calls to 111 and 999 and ambulanceconveyanceThe service is in line with NHS England’s Long-Term Plan and will involve the development of partnership agreements, Escalation Policies and procedures, service standards, StandardOperating Procedures and pathways to ensure that people experiencing urgent mental health needs in K&M can access a range of crisis alternatives and a safe place to receive asupportive offer in the community.This service has been designed taking into account learning from Safe Haven Providers andService Users across the Country, along with engagement of people with lived experience and professionals who have fed in their views to help shape this draft specification andemerging model.The service will be resourced by a suitable experienced Provider who has demonstrated that they can meet the contract requirements and deliver good outcomes for local people. Theservice will be supported with clinical in reach from statutory services – this model will be coproducedby local partners to agree on what this looks like and reviewed on an on-goingbasis

• Safe Havens
• Num offers: 3
• Value: £18,330,557

• CONTRACT NOT AWARDED – NO SUCCESSFUL BIDDERS.