Abstract
For the purpose of this article, a specialist psychiatric unit refers to any community project, out-patient clinic, hospital ward or, as in the case of Henderson, a whole hospital which specialises in providing a specific type of treatment or treatment to a particular patient group(s). Specialist psychiatric units may be particularly vulnerable at this time when, because of the implications of Working for Patients, many psychiatrists' minds are focused on the need to justify and define their ‘core services’. Many specialist psychiatric units are directly funded by their hosting Region. If Regional Health Authorities do not maintain special psychiatric units directly then a high financial risk will be put on any District Health Authority or self-governing hospital which hosts them. If the latter fail to accept the financial risk, or take the risk and then suffer financially, there is the possibility that both a wealth of specialist expertise will be lost from the psychiatric profession as a whole and that certain patients will receive substandard or no treatment. It may be, therefore, that there is now a need specifically to justify the continued existence of specialist psychiatric units. Henderson Hospital, a therapeutic community specialising in the treatment of severely personality disordered young adults, is a case in point.
Highlights
This paper summarises the history of Henderson Hospital over the past 40 years; outlines its clinical arena in terms of the specific patient group; reports on key areas of research previously undertaken and points to future research directions
From 1947when the Ministry of Labour set up the Industrial Rehabilitation Unit at Belmont, the clientele consisted of neurotic patients, often chroni cally disabled and unable to maintain a job, those with character disorders and those with borderline psychotic illnesses
From a descriptive or categorical diagnostic stand point, residents at Henderson Hospital suffer from neurosis or personality disorder as defined by ICD-9
Summary
In 1959 Henderson Hospital was so named when it became established as an autonomous unit. From 1947when the Ministry of Labour set up the Industrial Rehabilitation Unit at Belmont, the clientele consisted of neurotic patients, often chroni cally disabled and unable to maintain a job, those with character disorders and those with borderline psychotic illnesses. The Industrial Rehabilitation Unit had been set up on an experimental basis by the Ministry of Labour and through the years the research tradition has carried on. HeOndveerrsotnh'se 3in0creyaesairnsg wspheicchialihsaatvieon elianpstehde tsrienacte ment of 'psychopaths' and 'character disorders', tthheisrefiehlads, pbaeretnicuanlarelynorimn othues cionnccreeapste oifn 'binotredreersltinien personality disorder' and 'borderline personality organisation'. This derives from two influences, one psychiatric and the other psychoanalytic
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