children - West London Mental Health NHS Trust

Action plan
bullying and harassment
a-z of trust sites
Ll is for The Limes
10 Merrick Road, Southall, UB2 4AU
Limes assessment unit
The Limes unit provides rehabilitation,
recovery and independent living services for
adults from the Ealing area. Staff provide care
for 19 patients, both male and female many
of whom are referred from the John Conolly
wing on the trust’s Ealing site with others
being referred from the local community. The
average length of stay at the unit is between
three and six months.
A close knit and multi-disciplined team of
staff works in the unit including, doctors,
nurses, occupational therapists, social workers,
psychologists, community psychiatric nurses,
management and administration staff.
Numerous activities are provided by the
nurses including daily cooking sessions.
Manager of the unit John Nursimooloo says,
“Under supervision of the nursing staff,
patients do all the shopping and cooking, which
helps to play a part in their recovery. They also
help the staff to look after the environment
of the unit, keeping it clean and helping with
some of the maintenance work.”
John adds, “Before patients leave the unit to
return to the community we help them to get
back into training or into work. We find that it is
really beneficial for patients to have something in
place for them for when they leave. We also have
a community rehabilitation team of staff whose
role it is to keep in touch with patients for some
time upon return to the community to enable
them to settle back into a meaningful life away
from the Limes.”
The assessment unit is undergoing some
refurbishment works at the moment which has so
far included new bathrooms and a new kitchen.
Limes nursing home
The nursing home provides specialist inpatient
care for elderly people with mental health
problems. Currently there are twenty residents.
The medical care of residents is provided by a
local GP, whilst the psychiatric care is provided by
the trust’s Dr Riza Akyldiz.
Sector manager, Rinaldo Meza says, “The
atmosphere within the home is warm and
homelike. The unit is undergoing changes at the
moment and it is expected that by March this
year there will be improved facilities such as a
child visiting area, more appropriate recreational
facilities, and improved security.”
The trust has agreed an action plan in response
to the review of bullying and harassment at the
trust carried out by Middlesex University.
Use of an independent monitoring
and reporting body
The trust will set up a reciprocal arrangement
with another London mental health trust,
whereby they will undertake bullying and
harassment investigations on our behalf. In
addition, Middlesex University will perform an
independent scrutiny and monitoring role being
made aware of all cases reported and making
sure that these are progressing according to
the agreed policy. A quarterly report will be
submitted to the board with a nominated lead
from the trust.
Create a secure website for staff
reporting both formal and informal
A secure website will be established in addition
to the pre-existing confidential bullying and
harassment help-line. Increase publicity.
Together with clinical staff, service
users have updated their care plans
to incorporate nicotine replacement
therapy (NRT) and former smoking
rooms have been transformed into
specialist therapeutic, faith, music or
quiet rooms.
Irene Pachawo has recently been
appointed as the trust’s smoke free
adviser, in addition to her role as acting
physical health lead nurse with Ealing’s
There will be a zero tolerance publicity
campaign stressing to staff and managers alike
that bullying is unacceptable and the trust will take
robust action to deal with proven cases.
Introduce new training packages
The trust will build upon training opportunities
already on offer for staff in the area of bullying and
harassment. For example B&H prevention and
management will now be included on induction
training for managers new to the trust or recently
promoted.
Set time limits for bullying
and harassment reporting and
amendments to policy and procedure
Limits will be set for the time an investigation
should take. This is because the Middlesex
University report concluded that investigations
can often become long and drawn out which
adds to the stress for the individuals concerned.
Some changes will be made to the bullying and
harassment policy and procedure to incorporate
the points made by Middlesex University.
Smoke free
As of the 1 July 2008 WLMHT became a smoke-free
organisation and over the past six months, many of our service
users have taken the offered support to either cut back on the
number of cigarettes they smoke or to stop all together.
forensic services. The aim is to give
further help with implementation of
the smoke free policy.
“As most of the methods we use
have come from the community, I
am eager to establish appropriate
practices within mental health
services,” commented Irene.
Amongst other tasks, Irene will be
working to:
• Develop an accredited training
programme for mental health
clinicians in association with
Buckinghamshire University.
• Assess service users desire to stop
smoking within the context of their
physical wellbeing.
• Review service users’ care plans
to ensure they are user friendly,
specific and are fit for purpose.
• Work with the trust’s risk
assessment team to ensure
smoking related incidents are kept
to a minimum.
• Link the smoke-free initiative with
the Star Wards programme.
• Establish links with champions from
other sites to ensure best practice
is shared.
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