How co-production leads to positive practice at Red Kite View
Our purpose-built children and young people's inpatient mental health unit, Red Kite View, offers short-term intensive assessment and treatment for young people between the ages of 13-17 who can no longer be cared for in the community, or where their mental health needs mean they are unsafe in the community.
Since its initial development, co-production has been at the heart of Red Kite View; young people and their families with lived experience were involved in the design and development of the service, including a co-produced Red Kite View Charter.
On 1 May, Red Kite View won the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (incl. Transition Services and those from 0-25) Award at the Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards (PPIMH). The work on co-production and following the service’s values demonstrates the commitment to positive practice, as do their clinical models and innovative care and treatment.
Since opening in 2022, Red Kite View has provided care closer to home and has continued to reduce the length of stay for young people.
Innovative Care and Treatment
The team provides evidence-based care and treatment for young people in the service while developing innovative approaches to engagement and treatment to produce practice-based evidence to inform care at Red Kite View and beyond.
Specialist interventions include:
- Family Therapy
- Art Therapy
- Psychological Therapies, including DBT, CBT and attachment-based approaches
- FT-AN (Family Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa)
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Social and Systemic interventions
- Occupational Therapy
- Specialist dietetic interventions utilising the ‘Food First’ model
- Specialist nursing interventions, e.g. NG feeds, physical healthcare monitoring,
- Specialist psychiatric and medical interventions, e.g. management/reduction of complex medication regimes
Among the most popular interventions at Red Kite View are those developed in partnerships with other organisations. This includes groups run by Cloth Cats, which provide arts and music interventions, including DJ sessions, and the Pets as Therapy service, which provides regular ‘canine therapy’ sessions—our PAT dog, Indie, recently won a national award for ‘Volunteer of the Year’!
Young people and staff, several of whom are currently undergoing more intensive evaluation, give feedback and help shape the evaluation of the innovative approaches used at Red Kit View. Co-production is vitally essential to delivering, developing, and improving the service at Red Kite View.
“Co-production has been integral to the evolution of Red Kite View, engaging young people, families, staff, and stakeholders in shaping our service over the past two years. Despite facing common industry challenges such as nursing staff shortages and managing a complex patient group, these awards underscore the dedication and ongoing efforts of our team.” – Nik Lee, Operational Manager, Red Kite View
Innovative staffing and recruitment
Red Kite View has a large and diverse multidisciplinary team and provides numerous opportunities for students and trainees to learn and develop their skills. The service currently provides placements for Psychologists in Clinical Training, Year in Industry Psychology Interns, Family Therapy trainees, Occupational Therapy Students, Nursing Students, Psychotherapy and Art Therapy students, Student Dieticians, SALT students, Social Work students and Trainee Psychiatrists.
The service has recently developed a training package for acute staff and has delivered this to consultants and support workers to improve their knowledge and understanding of working with young people with mental health problems.
Innovation in recruitment at Red Kite View, saw a campaign developed specifically for local people. The local area has high unemployment rates, and the Trust made a commitment to help narrow that inequality. Jobs were advertised through local community hubs rather than through NHS jobs to improve access. These posts were filled, and the majority of those staff members have now successfully moved into B3 HCSW posts. Despite the success of the recruitment campaign, with the national shortage of nursing staff, we have a number of vacancies at Red Kite View. You can learn more and apply on our Latest Jobs website.