Occupational Therapy: Inpatient Adult Mental Health
How Occupational Therapy is delivered as part of the Inpatient Adult Mental Health Service and what this offers
People with serious mental illness often disengage from typical activities of daily living and may lose their motivation or sense of identity. This can have a major impact on their ability to recover from their illness and on their wider social life.
Occupational Therapy can help people experiencing mental illness to have insight into the impact of their illness and to begin to address that. Physical activity, time in nature and social activities are all evidence-based ways to reduce anxiety and improve mood. Occupational Therapy tools help both the patient and their mental health workers to understand the person as an individual. This helps the patient to find ways to re-engage with activities that are meaningful to them, as well as building constructive routines again.
Felindre Ward is an acute mental health inpatient unit based at Bronllys Hospital. The ward provides assessment, care and treatment for adults with serious mental illness who cannot be managed in the community. On the ward there are various professionals working within the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT). These professionals include:
- Mental Health Nurses
- Health Care Support Workers
- Speciality Doctors
- Psychiatrists
- Occupational Therapist
- Activity Co-ordinator
- Inpatient Liaison
- Pharmacist
These professionals will work with you to help aid your recovery and support you back into the community.
Locations of the service
Please see the following link to the ‘Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital’ webpage on the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) website, for this information:
Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital - Powys Teaching Health Board (nhs.wales)
How can you access the service?
+ Referral criteria advice for Healthcare Professionals
Please see the following link to the ‘Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital’ webpage on the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) website, for this information:
Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital - Powys Teaching Health Board (nhs.wales)
Additionally, please note the Inpatient Occupational Therapist (OT) only sees inpatients on the ward, so referrals are not accepted directly. Patients on the ward are reviewed weekly by a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) which includes an Occupational Therapist.
What should you expect when interacting with the service
Felindre Ward is a 16-bed mixed-sex acute mental health inpatient unit for adults aged 18-65 years from Powys. There are also two crisis beds for use outside the hours of 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.
Patients can be admitted voluntarily or formally detained under the Mental Health Act. Due to this you may not have any belongings with you, but on admission a welcome pack is provided which has leaflets about the ward, alongside toiletries. Staff will then support you to obtain any belongings required.
On the ward there are various professionals who will work with you to help aid your recovery and support you back into the community. This includes an Occupational Therapist and Occupational Therapy Support Worker.
The Occupational Therapist (OT) will focus on how your mental health illness affects your skills and confidence to tackle daily living activities. Through assessments an OT may review how you currently manage your activities of daily living. They will then work with you to find out what is important to you. Collaborative goals and interventions are then made, which help tackle any difficulties experienced in any of these roles and activities of daily living.
There are groups offered daily, delivered by ward staff, to which all patients are welcome and are encouraged to attend.
What are the available types of treatments?
Occupational Therapists will help you to set goals and will explain how you can work towards those goals. This may involve creating a plan together of the work that will be completed over a set timeframe. Your OT or a Support Worker from the team will then carry out work towards the goals with you.
The focus of interventions to help you achieve your goals may include: budgeting, daily planners, cooking, and support with domestic tasks.
If other services are required, you may be referred on for them. This may for example include one of more of the following:
- The National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS)
- Groups run by the charity ‘Mind’
- Community groups or activities arranged via a Community Connector from the Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO)
- The Psychology service at Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB)
- The online SilverCloud service that provides Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques to support your Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Or other relevant mental health sessions with the Local Primary Mental Health Support Service (LPMHSS).
If you have any physical health issues your OT may be able to help arrange appropriate referrals to services for support. Or, they may be able to prescribe you equipment to make tasks easier, if you have a long-term physical disability.
Advice and support resources
Contacting the service
Please see the following link to the ‘Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital’ webpage on the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) website, for this information:
Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital - Powys Teaching Health Board (nhs.wales)
Additionally, the OT office on the Felindre Ward at Bronllys Hospital can be contacted via telephone on: 01874 712468
Meet the team
The Occupational Therapy team on the ward comprises of one full time Occupational Therapist (OT) and one full time Occupational Therapy Support Worker (OTSW). We also have a part time Activity Co-ordinator whom we work closely with.
Patient feedback
We welcome any feedback you might have about your experience with Mental Health Occupational Therapy support at Felindre Ward (Bronllys Hospital) at Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB).
You can access our feedback survey by clicking on the following link. Alternatively, you can scan the associated QR code image below with a smartphone / other device if you wish to complete the survey via a different device. This will take you to the same webpage location as the link.
Additionally, patients on the ward are provided with a questionnaire to complete upon discharge. Within this they can feedback on their Occupational Therapy related care if they wish to.
If you wish to provide feedback to the wider Felindre Ward Team (not just regarding Occupational Therapy support), please see the following link to the ‘Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital’ webpage on the PTHB website, for information:
Mental Health Services: Admission to Hospital - Powys Teaching Health Board (nhs.wales)