Dartmouth House is discussed in detail on p.69 of The state of care in mental health services 2014 to 2017 under Improvement and Reinspection.
The CQC explain that, following going into special measures in December 2015, the unit was closed for refurbishment, later reopening as Dartmouth House with the function changed to long stay rehabilitation for men of working age. The report identifies how Options for Care developed new governance structures to ensure patient safety and delivered better quality care and therapeutic services. Following reinspection, Dartmouth House was rated as Good overall and in March 2017, the service came out of special measures (the first independent mental health service to do so). The report identified specific areas of good practice which led to the improvement:
– Developed detailed, recovery focused care plans.
– Employed agency staff who had good knowledge of the service and could build relationships based on trust with patients.
– Encouraged patients to contribute to discussions about what activities should take place.
– Established a culture where open discussion was encouraged.
– Installed a strong administrative team to allow staff to spend more time with patients.
– Risk assessed ligature risks with the intention that the environment would reflect a patient’s home.
– Developed a process that meant informal patients could leave at will.
– Carried out adjustments for people who needed disabled access to the building.
The full report is available here:http://www.cqc.org.uk/publications/major-report/state-care-mental-health-services-2014-2017