Themes
- Working in a high security setting
- Befriending schemes
Rampton Hospital has approximately 380 patients and prior to admission every patient must fulfil two criteria. First they must be detainable under the Mental Health Act 1983, under one of the following classifications:
- Learning disability
- Mental Illness
- Psychopathic disorder
Second, they must be considered to require a high security hospital placement. The high security available within Rampton Hospital is of such a kind and degree to detain patients who, if at large, would present a risk to others in the community and who could not be safely contained within the security at a Regional Secure Unit. The hospital operates within a secure perimeter and access must be authorised.
The majority of patients at Rampton are male, and 26% of patients are black or from ethnic minorities. The average length of stay at Rampton is seven years but many patients have been there for much longer. Patients who leave Rampton are unlikely to go straight into the community and usually go to a Regional Secure Unit within a general psychiatric hospital.
The two part-time Volunteer Co-ordinators at Rampton provide a befriending service to patients who have no friends (or other visitors). -This means recruiting, training, matching individual volunteers to patients and providing support to those volunteers when they make their monthly visits to the hospital. Volunteers are recruited by various routes, including word of mouth, and come from across the East Midlands. It is important to recruit volunteers who will match the patients, such as finding a befriender for a patient who only speaks Polish and the Volunteer Co-ordinators speaks to a range of groups, including black men’s groups and church groups, to recruit appropriately. There are currently 45 active volunteers each supporting at least one patient within Rampton. 25 are women and 20 men, 7 of whom are from ethnic minorities, and they provide a service across the range of diagnoses and ethnic minorities within Rampton. There are currently 16 volunteers being trained of whom 3 are from ethnic minorities.
Most patients are referred by Social Workers within Rampton, but there are some referrals from named nurses (key-workers) and self-referrals. Having met the patient, social worker and nurse the Volunteer Co-ordinator will propose the prospect of a befriending volunteer to the Clinical Team who will make the decision as to whether this would be appropriate for that particular patient.
In order to protect both the patients and the volunteers every patient receiving visits from a volunteer has to sign an agreement which rules out manipulative behaviour and also agrees that the volunteering relationship will end when the patient leaves Rampton. Obviously they may seek another befriending volunteer in another hospital, if that service is available. In many cases the fact that a patient is visited is part of their Care Plan, and for almost all patients their volunteer visitor is the only person they see who is not a paid professional. There are occasional cases where a patient may re-establish contact with their family but the befriending relationship would not be withdrawn in these circumstances.
All potential volunteers are CRB checked and attend a three day induction course. Once they have been allocated to a patient and start monthly visiting the Volunteer Co-ordinators would see them at least every third visit, and some volunteers are de-briefed after each visit. The Volunteer Co-ordinators also provide opportunities for group support, by organising ad hoc training sessions to inform volunteers about new services or practices within the hospital.
There is also a canine volunteer – a volunteer who brings a dog to befriend a patient with learning disabilities who finds it very hard to relate to people – and there is no doubt that this has had a positive effect on this patient and those around him.
Further Information
11 Galen Avenue
Rampton Hospital
Retford
DN22 0PD
01777-247539
janet.phillips@nottshc.nhs.uk
valerie.strawson@nottshc.nhs.uk
