Psychiatric Intensive Care Units or PICUs are specialist twenty-four hour inpatient wards that provide
intensive assessment and
comprehensive treatment to individuals during the most acute phase of a serious
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
.
Most individuals only stay on PICU wards for a very short time and are moved as soon as the crisis is over or the risky behaviours are under control. 2014 guidance says that the maximum length of stay should be 8 weeks.
Normally, patients are discharged to acute psychiatric wards, but some patients go straight home.
PICUs are locked and more secure wards, and have a low patient capacity when compared to open psychiatric wards. They have higher levels of staffing and are usually single-sex.
[
PICUs have a diverse range of staff, including: mental health nurses, ]psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
s, psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
s, pharmacist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...
s, occupational therapists, social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
ers, activities co-ordinators, health care support workers, and ward managers.seclusion room
A padded cell is a cell in a psychiatric hospital with cushions lining the walls. The padding is an attempt to prevent patients from hurting themselves by hitting their head (or other bodily parts) on the hard surface of the walls. In most case ...
for the management of violence and aggression. Other restrictive practices include rapid tranquillisation
Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence.
Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...
, ECT and high dose antipsychotics
Antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics, are a class of Psychiatric medication, psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizophrenia but ...
.[{{cite journal , last1=Pereira , first1=Stephen , last2=Sarsam , first2=May , last3=Bhui , first3=Kamaldeep , last4=Paton , first4=Carol , title=The London Survey of Psychiatric Intensive Care Units: service provision and operational characteristics of National Health Service units , journal=Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care , date=2005 , volume=1 , issue=1 , pages=7–15 , doi=10.1017/S1742646405000038 , url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B1455180B8E67E640D686E49BB432996/S1742646405000038a.pdf/div-class-title-the-london-survey-of-psychiatric-intensive-care-units-service-provision-and-operational-characteristics-of-national-health-service-units-div.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725075435id_/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B1455180B8E67E640D686E49BB432996/S1742646405000038a.pdf/div-class-title-the-london-survey-of-psychiatric-intensive-care-units-service-provision-and-operational-characteristics-of-national-health-service-units-div.pdf , archive-date=2018-07-25 , access-date=31 August 2022]
References
External links
NAPICU website
Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care
Treatment of mental disorders