0121 301 2190 A brief overview of the Mother and Baby Unit, the service we provide, and what to expect when you are working with a family during an admission Chamomile Suite Mother & Baby Unit Information for Children’s Services Please contact us if you have any questions about our service or to discuss a family under our care [email protected]
The Chamomile Suite Mother and Baby Inpatient Unit offers admissions for women and their babies (up to the age of 1 year) where the mother is suffering from an acute perinatal mental health problem that cannot be safely treated in the community. We also accept admissions of women who are in the latter stages of pregnancy. There are 10 beds on the unit, including our ‘Semi-Independent Flat’, which can be beneficial for accommodating families and preparing mothers for discharge from hospital. To access our full admission criteria please refer to the Universal MBU referral form which can be found at It is important to note there are different types of Mother and Baby Units such as Assessment units and as a hospital ward designed primarily to treat acute mental illness, the work we do is very different to those. www.perinatal.cpms.necsu.nhs.uk About the Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) En-Suite Bedrooms The Crèche
The team at Chamomile Suite is made up of a range of disciplines including Psychiatrists and Ward Doctors, Registered Mental Health Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Nursery Nurses, Psychologists, Healthcare Assistants and Peer Support Workers. The unit is staffed 24/7 allowing for continuous assessment of mothers and their babies. Each service user is allocated to a Consultant Psychiatrist who will be the Responsible Clinician during their admission as well as a Named Nurse and Nursery Nurse as their primary contacts during admission. We work closely with our Perinatal Safeguarding Facilitator who offers support, training and supervision to our team and the Perinatal Community Mental Heath teams. The unit works alongside allocated health visitors for babies admitted who live in Birmingham, and has a liaison Health Visiting service who temporarily take over the care of babies admitted from further away. The Team at Chamomile Suite Ward Manager and Senior Nurses Occupational Therapists Nursery Nurses Healthcare Assistants Staff Nurses and Deputy Ward Managers
Admission and Legal Issues Service Users can be admitted to the unit on an informal basis which means they are agreeing to admission and have the capacity do so Where it is deemed that someone presents a very high risk as a result of their poor mental health, admission can be facilitated under the Mental Health Act without the patients consent, or if they are deemed to lack capacity to make the decision Please speak to the team to find out more about the legal status of the service user you are working with and what implications this has on their care and treatment Informal service users can choose to take leave or discharge themselves from hospital without notice unless assessed to present at extremely high risk to themselves or others due to their mental health. Please inform the team straight away if your assessment would deem it unsafe for baby to leave the unit with our service user so the team can work with you to put a plan in place to prevent this In some rare circumstances such as acute physical health needs or risks unable to be managed safely on the MBU, a service user may require immediate transfer or discharge from the unit. We are unable to keep a baby on the unit without someone who holds legal parental responsibility The MBU holds no parental responsibility for the babies of mothers who are admitted. We can admit service users with their babies if they are subject to a care order, as long as the criteria for admission is otherwise met
We provide a variety of therapeutic interventions, all of which are tailored to suit individual needs. These can range from treatment with medication, psychological assessment and therapy, occupational therapy, and interventions to support mother-infant interaction. The treatment plan for each service user is decided upon jointly between the patient and MDT. Prolonged hospital admission can be detrimental to long term recovery so we always start planning discharge from the point of admission, working towards clear plans and goals with an aim for the service user to be discharged home at the earliest safe opportunity. Contact with home and the community is important to maintain relationships and life skills outside of hospital, so it is usual for our service users to spend periods of time at home during their admission and for this time to increase gradually as they recover. Treatment at Chamomile Suite
The care and treatment on the Mother and Baby Unit is provided by a MultiDisciplinary team (MDT). Service users will meet with the MDT weekly in their ward review. In this meeting the team work with the service user to review their care and treatment plan and identify any barriers to discharge. We encourage the attendance of other agencies involved in the care of service users and babies at these meetings to provide a forum for sharing relevant information and keeping up to date with current circumstances. It is also an opportunity for children’s services to gain knowledge about the impact of parental mental illness may have on interventions required to ensure their children’s need are met. By having a multi agency approach we ensure the care provided is holistic, therapeutic and family centred. Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-Agency Approach
As part of our referral screening process a member of the team or the referrer will establish if there is any current involvement with childrens services. We will liaise with the allocated social worker before admission, or as soon as possible afterwards, in order to contribute to an assessment of what support will be required on the ward. Safeguarding Children on the MBU Our team are trained to a minimum of level 2 in safeguarding children and have extensive experience in safeguarding practices in the context of perinatal mental health. Where there are safeguarding concerns either identified previously, or which become apparent during admission, our team can provide expertise as to the impact of the mothers mental health on these, and how much it can be expected for hospital treatment to mitigate against them. The environment, care and methods of assessment on the MBU are unique to a hospital setting and not comparable to residential parenting assessment units nor community living. Therefore it is never a suitable alternative to a parenting assessment and should not be viewed as such. It is not possible to extend periods of admission if our service users mental health is no longer the primary concern, and in some rare cases admissions have to end abruptly. Therefore it imperative that discharge and contingency plans are put in place at the earliest opportunity to safeguard the family outside of hospital.
Inform you in a timely manner of any concerns or significant changes Attend and input into planned or urgent meetings convened about the family Invite you to review meetings with as much notice as possible. our review meetings are usually convened soon after admission, at regular intervals throughout the admission, and prior to discharge Provide reports detailing observations and recommendations, based on our observation of the mother and child Please submit written request with a minimum 7 days notice Organise rooms in our hospital for Local Authority led meetings This can support unwell service users to attend. Please arrange this via our Ward Administrator Facilitate and support you to visit the family in hospital When Co-working with you, we will:
Communicate with us in a timely manner regarding any concerns or significant changes Use our team inbox [email protected] when communicating with us via email This prevents receipt being delayed if someone is not on shift Liaise with us prior to any communication with the service user Especially if it could be perceived as ‘bad news’. We can support the service user and mitigate against any increased risk Attend meetings you are invited to Or send a representative who knows the case if you can not attend Provide us with a secure email address So we can share information with you safely throughout the admission Share and update copies of safeguarding plans with us They can be sent securely to our team email address When Co-working with us, we ask that you:
Click Here to visit our website and find out more about our unit and BSMHFT Perinatal Mental Health Services We aim to work in a child centred way, in accordance with the principles of the Working Together document. If at any time you feel that we are falling short of this or you have any other feedback about our service please do not hesitate to contact the unit and ask to speak to our Ward Manager Click Here to visit Mind’s webpages on Perinatal Mental Health Click Here to find out more about Post Partum from our Partners at Action on Postpartum Psychosis Useful Links Click Here for a Virtual Tour of Chamomile Suite Help us to Improve our Service
Chamomile Suite, The Barberry 25 Vincent Drive Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2SY 0121 301 2190