Scope of the facility
The scheme will reprovide the services presently provided in the Pendereds facility and other units on the Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) site including:

1 x 12 bed adult mental health assessment ward;
2 x 17 bed adult mental health treatment wards;
1 x 7 bed adult psychiatric intensive care unit;
1 x 12 bed adult rehabilitation ward;
1 x 24 bed assessment and treatment ward for older people with functional illness;
1 x 24 bed assessment and treatment ward for older people with organic illness.

The majority of these current facilities are old and not fit for purpose. The scheme will also provide a new local 12 bed low secure facility and spare capacity for up to a further 12 beds which may be commissioned at a future date.

The scheme capital costs are circa £35m with a unitary payment of £3.6m.

3 Villages in 1 Community

SHP recognises that Mental Health sub specialties play very different roles within the field of Mental health services and that co-location of services and shared facilities is a considerable design challenge.

Acute Mental Health
To focus on providing comprehensive multi-disciplinary mental healthcare within a safe, secure and supportive environment to enable individuals with a severe or enduring mental illness to lead as fulfilled a life as possible with the support of their carers, by promoting (inter)/independent living.

Older people Mental Health
Provide accessible mental health services within a partnership approach to enable elderly individuals to lead as independent and fulfilled a life as possible with the support of their carers.

Longer term Mental Health
Provide a quality service that optimises the existing abilities and interests of clients, empowering them to develop at their own pace. A holistic approach to care set within a homely environment provides the opportunities to place special emphasis on such issues as personal risk taking, dignity, culture and choice. This may include alternatives complementary to medical treatment.

These philosophies led to a design concept paraphrased as 'Three villages within a One community'. In other words there were areas which were discrete and purpose designed for each of the services and shared services which enabled facilities to be used by different client groups at different times and support services that provided a service to each of the clinical and living areas. This solution achieved the right balance of efficient use of space and independence for each of the services.

Strategic Flexibility
One of the key considerations, particularly given the nature of PFI investments is the requirement to consider the uncertainty around volumes of models of care delivery and strategic flexibility of the facility. This was demonstrated through scenario panning that tested the expandability of each service component and adjustments to the balance of each component within the total facility.

A Week in the Life of a Mental Health Service User
An innovative approach was used by Strategic Healthcare Planning to help support a Mental Health PFI submission in Northampton. SHP developed Case Studies to graphically describe the potential experience of Mental Health Service users within a concept building to illustrate and 'bring to life' the qualities of the design. These fictional stories, set in the future described how the building would work and feel from various user perspectives - 'Colin' an adult acute admission to the Intensive Care Unit, 'Lisa' a regular user of the inpatient service and 'Mary' an older person suffering from acute dementia were created for the exercise. Through using this technique, we were able to show how the building provided choices for these patients and how the environment had been carefully thought through for their specific needs. Strategic Healthcare Planning was part of the Investors In Health PFI team to build a new mental health hospital in Northampton.

The scheme is due to start on site early 2007.