Female Borderline Personality Disorders – New Dawn
Service & Objectives
 |
| *Winner of Nursing Practice Award 2008 |
New Dawn is an award-winning* 9-bed specialist ward for women who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or with similar traits.
There are two types of service offered:
Short-term crisis intervention utilising a DBT model (i.e. emergency referrals)
A longer-term therapeutic treatment programme utilising the principles of DBT with ith skills coaching and individual therapy.
Who is appropriate?
Inclusion criteria
We can accept individuals who are:
- females, aged 18-65
- diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder or traits thereof
- informal or detained under the Mental Health Act
- able to recognise the need for help
- patients with an eating disorder may be considered if they have traits of BPD
We cannot accept individuals with:
- severe mental impairment
- severe learning difficulties
- disorders of an organic nature
- medical conditions that require immediate treatment in medical/surgical units
- although many of our clients have a background of substance misuse, we cannot accept anyone who first requires drug or alcohol detoxifications. We are able to provide these services at our other hospitals.
Treatment Programme
New Dawn offers a programme that is well structured to give clients the opportunity to address and deal with their problems in a safe environment. Each client is allocated to a team that consists of a consultant psychiatrist, a ward doctor, two nurses and an individual DBT therapist. Clients will also get to work with an art psychotherapist twice a week. In addition, the ward offers relaxation therapy and “fusspots” (pampering) groups. Clients get to make suggestions about the ward activities through a weekly community meeting that is attended by both staff and clients.
The Dialectical Behaviour Therapy on the ward offers Skills Training and Individual Therapy.
Skills Training Group
“The Skills Training group offers an environment in which clients meet others with the same or similar problems and where they can give and receive support and motivation from one another. In Skills Training, clients are also given homework. This is generated during the group. The homework encourages clients to become familiar with more adaptive problem solving techniques”
Individual Therapy
“In Individual Therapy, clients work with a single therapist who is allocated to them for the duration of their stay on the ward. The aim of Individual Therapy is to consolidate what is being learnt in Skills Training by attempting to get the client to focus on positive changes in her responses and behaviour. The individual therapist helps and supports the client to identify and define targets, monitors progress and reviews behaviour chain analyses. Although the individual therapist will not take on the client’s problems and solve them, the therapist will encourage the client to use the skills she has learned, offer coaching in practising / applying the skills and spur the client on”).
Assessment and management of risk form a vital part of the programme and these are continuously reviewed throughout a client’s stay on the ward. The programme seeks to enable clients to use skills to confront their problems instead of using escape behaviours such as overdosing, self-laceration, burning and attempting to commit suicide. Through committing to the programme, clients will be supported in identifying and overcoming negative behaviours.
Making a Referral
So we have all the information we need to process your referral the best way is to fill out a referral form. Alternatively we take referrals by telephone or email. More information on making a referral.
Discharge & Aftercare
Planning for discharge from New Dawn starts at admission. After discharge, contact will be maintained with the client’s own community Mental Health Team to offer ongoing support and advice. This assists the New Dawn team in refining the service offered and in monitoring client’s outcomes. We are happy to consider developing more structured aftercare packages for the future, and we would encourage teams involved in client aftercare to discuss the needs of their clients with us.
New Dawn recognises that Carers play an important role in the planning of care. We therefore run a Carers group which takes place on the first weekend of each month.
We also run a monthly Leavers group where those clients who have been discharged can come to the ward and speak about their experiences after leaving the ward. This gives clients an opportunity to talk openly about their fear of being discharged and to receive motivation from those who have already been discharged.
Contact the hospital
Fax: 020 8991 0440
Email Cygnet Hospital Ealing
Enquire Online
Download Referral Form
