Intensive care unit psychologists win national award | News

Colleagues from our psychiatric intensive care units (PICUs) based in Highgate attended the 27th National Conference of the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (NAPICU) on 21 and 22 September 2023.

Dr Stefania Goffredo (Clinical Psychologist on Coral Ward) and Janna Fincke (Clinical Psychologist on Ruby Ward) got the opportunity to present their work on post-seclusion debriefs for service users and team at the conference and won an award for the best oral presentation.

Seclusion is an intervention used in psychiatric inpatient care as a last resort to confine and isolate service users who pose a significant risk of harm to other service users or staff.

Stef and Janna started the project as part of a hospital-wide quality improvement initiative that reviews the use of seclusion. During their review of existing academic literature, they found evidence to suggest that seclusion has not only an adverse effect on service users but also on staff, which is why they decided to explore the impact that offering debriefs to both groups can have.

In total they have conducted 33 debriefs since September 2022.

Their findings are promising and suggest that the debriefs have been helpful for service users and staff by providing a space for reflection and discussion.

They also looked at the neurodiversity of service users admitted to our PICUs as part of their project.

As a result of this work, a greater emphasis is now being placed on providing service users with sensory tools to reduce overstimulation as well as skills to help them regulate intense emotions while they are on the wards.

The themes that came up in the seclusion debriefs have been discussed in regular team meetings as part of a review of our practices and to help prevent violence and aggression on the wards.

Stef and Janna had the following to say about their project and award:

"We appreciate how difficult it is for service users to share emotions and internal experiences regarding devastating life events outside of their close personal relationships. Therefore, the award goes to all service users and colleagues who have engaged in the post-seclusion debriefs because without them and their bravery the project wouldn’t have been possible.

"The post-seclusion debriefs have helped us to improve our clinical practice greatly as they offer a space to learn from each other and gain greater awareness of others and ourselves as clinicians in the process."