Acute wards: problems and solutions

Abstract

This paper will outline some of the long-standing problems and new challenges facing acute in-patient care, some of the recommendations for change and various difficulties encountered in trying to improve the situation. It will describe how a collaborative approach (led by the Northern Centre for Mental Health, the Centre for Best Practice in Leicester and both the Northern and Yorkshire and the Trent regional offices) can bring about tangible and measurable change for the better and what lessons there may be for the management and delivery of mental health care in the future.