Poplar Adolescent Unit

Child and adolescent inpatient services are provided for people under the age of 18 who require specialist mental health services.

The Trust has a dedicated assessment unit for adolescents called the Poplar Adolescent Unit. Poplar Adolescent Unit is a brand new inpatient facility, situated within the award-winning Rochford Hospital in Essex.

The ward has 13 en-suite bedrooms, in two gender-separate wings, including two bedrooms for disabled young people. There is an attractive enclosed garden for our young people’s exclusive use. The hospital gymnasium, craft rooms mature gardens and local community facilities can also be accessed under supervision, where appropriate.

Poplar Unit’s team of highly qualified mental health professionals provide top quality assessments, treatments, educational resources and short-term rehabilitation for young people aged between 13 and 17 years. The Unit is a safe place, where each young person feels cared for, secure and protected.

We provide an integrated service, with an in-depth, holistic assessment of the psychological, social and physical needs of each referred young person. An assessment is undertaken for all our young people, before a decision is taken about further in-patient treatment or discharge to appropriate care providers.

Based on our expert assessments and in partnership with the young person and their family / carers, we provide each young person with an individual package of treatment and support, tailored to their assessed needs and reviewed regularly.

The unit strives to be a centre of excellence for innovative clinical practice and on-going professional development. We provide a comprehensive range of therapeutic approaches, including systemic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behavioural therapy – group and individual, psycho education, psycho-social interventions, art and drama therapy and structured recreation time.

Our Team

We place a strong emphasis on the multi-disciplinary team approach and young people’s care plans and reviews are agreed daily with the input of all team members.

We have a ward-based consultant psychiatrist, supported by two staff grade psychiatrists who are also based at the Unit. Each young person will have a fully-qualified named nurse. All our nurses have specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service training.

Our team also includes clinical psychologists, clinical nurse specialists, healthcare support workers, qualified teachers, psychotherapists, family, art, occupational and sports activity therapists and social workers.

Our Educational Facilities

We have two main classrooms, which meet the national requirements for an examination centre. We also provide an additional study room for one-to-one study and self-study on the Unit. All our bedrooms have studying facilities. We have three qualified teachers and one learning support assistant for 15 young people.

Patient Experience

We would like to hear about your experience on the ward.  We use iWantGreatCare, a health reviews website, to collect feedback on what patients think, monitor it and action where possible.

Go online to www.iwantgreatcare.org/trusts/essex-partnership-university-trust or, if you'd prefer, ask the ward staff for paper form to complete.  It is very important that we hear from you about what has happened during your time with us as this will help us to improve things for other young people in similar circumstances, thank you.