Welcome to the Acute Care Programme website.

The Acute Care Programme is part of the National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU), the government agency charged with delivering mental health policy in the UK.

The Acute Care Programme website is a unique one-stop resource for acute care practitioners, commissioners, services users and carers.  

This is where you can keep in touch with best practice in Acute Care, with news, events, current policy and standards. You can also access the latest resources and share your own positive practice on a wide range of topics and activities. 

TO SEARCH THE RESOURCES, go to the 'Our Work' section and click on the tag cloud to access resources by topic or enter a specific title in the search box. Alternatively, click on Resource Library to browse the  extensive list of titles. The Archive section contains hundreds of older resources.

If you'd like to share your innovative practice, and good news stories, click on Our Work and then Virtual Ward where you can upload anything you'd like us to share with others in the library.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to check the Events Calendar and to watch the latest video podcast The Triangle of Care- Carers Included. This video was made to mark the publication of The Triangle of Care and features carers sharing their stories and the work being done by Oxleas Foundation Trust in their Family Inclusive training course.

The Triangle of Care

THE TRIANGLE OF CARE - Carers Included: A Best Practice Guide in Acute Mental Health Care launched at a reception at the House of Commons on July 28th.

 The publication is the result of collaboration between The Princess Royal Trust for Carers (PRTC) and The National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU) and the title refers to the essential 3-way relationship between professionals, service users, their carers and families.

The guide emphasises the need for better local strategic involvement of carers and families in the care- planning and treatment of people experiencing mental ill-health and calls for better partnership working between service users, their carers and providers of services in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: “Increasingly we are becoming aware that mental health issues touch all of us. One in four of us will experience some kind of mental illness in our lifetime but the wider role of family and friends in helping to care for those affected is still too easily over looked, especially when crisis situations arise. “Caring can be rewarding but it can also be challenging. This guide shows how professionals, service users and carers can better work together to access the support needed.”

For more information about the background and development of the Triangle of Care click here.

Download the Triangle of Care pdf complete with resources and best practice examples.

There is a new page in the Our Work section - Patient Opinion. - where you can access comments from service users and carers about their experience of using acute mental health services. If you want to know more you can also visit the Patient Opinion website.

Do take a look at a very good example of the kind of dialogue and exchange of information that can take place in this posting: Discovery Alternative Support Additional In Schizophrenia

The Acute Care Declaration

There is a new page in the Our Work section where you will be able to find news and updates about the Acute Care Declaration, click on the link to your left. You will also find links to: Rethink, The National Patient Safety Agency,  The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, AIMS, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, The College of Occupational Therapists, The Royal College of Nurses, Shift and the British Psychological Society. These are the organisations supporting the declaration.