INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
Innovation in healthcare He continued: "Mersey Care embraces the opportunity to integrate genuine innovation in the services it offers. Across the organisation our staff are energised and excited by the pursuit of clinical excellence, and see technological innovation as the critical driver in improving the quality and accessibilty of clinical care. From the very start of the project there was a considerable focus on innovation in the planning and development of the care model. There will be innovative approaches and new therapies – ranging from avatar therapy to a distinctive arts strategy to create a unique feeling for the building. We will make sure that the ingredients are there to let our people discover new ways of working, keep searching for improvement, and contribute personally, a step change in clinical care. The motivation to have the very best technological solutions is evident in the selection of innovative media walls, providing real and genuine innovation in the field of secure forensic care."
Sustainable improvement in quality
The decision to install the Recornect media walls is a logical one. Backed by many years’ experience in the field, Recornect develops technological and innovative solutions aimed at new possibilities and sustainable improvement in the care of vulnerable individuals. These solutions are always based on practical experience and feedback from experts-by-experience and care workers. Recornect takes that experience and those stories and looks at the needs of both those undergoing treatment, and the clinical and nursing staff caring for them. Recornect’s goal is to offer social solutions using innovative techniques to replace predominantly clinical solutions.
Recovery vision central The Recornect team initiated a quest, some years ago, to develop supportive technology for use in crisis care. The recovery vision is a major source of inspiration for us – a vision where individuals are increasingly given the chance and encouraged to introduce their own solutions suited to their own strategies and coping styles. To that end, Recornect works closely with experts-by- experience, such as our own staff member, Alwin Verdonk. The latter says: “It’s precisely by looking at the situation from the perspective and experience of vulnerable people that solutions are created which make an essential and sustainable contribution to their recovery.”
Preparing for reintegration The recovery vision is an important starting point for Mersey Care too, for the care that the Trust offers. Ashworth Hospital, also located on Maghull Health Park, has had phenomenal successes with this. The clinicians and nursing staff at all levels there are hugely committed, and work with great dedication. A lot of hard work goes into
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CoWin media wall
CoWin is a high-secure ‘media wall’, developed around Recornect’s experiences with extreme forms of crisis ‘at the highest security level’. The company says: “Every individual’s recovery has its own process, and demands a personalised approach. The innovative CoWin media wall, and the GRASP software developed especially for it, offer vulnerable people in crisis personalised tools for de-escalation – tools with which they can get to grips with their crisis situation in a pleasant way.”
The CoWin media wall is suitable for use even in high secure environments, thanks to its steel frame, and a glass panel reportedly able to withstand ‘extreme violence’; Recornect says the product ‘meets the most stringent safety standards in psychiatry and forensic psychiatry’. It is built into, and is completely flush with, the wall, and incorporates speakers, for communication, a microphone, and a camera. To date, over 100 CoWin media walls have been installed at 57 locations in eight countries.
responding to the changing demands made of healthcare. There’s a strong focus on reducing the duration of people’s stay. and on working together towards a safe and productive life following the care provided, mainly by regarding the secure care at Mersey Care as merely a part of the lives of vulnerable people. The secure care is temporary in nature, and aimed at helping service-users with their reintegration into society, getting back to their normal lives with their families in the communities they hail from. The development of the care model at Rowan View continues to build on the experience gained at Ashworth Hospital.
Humane solutions for psychological needs
Mental healthcare has always had to deal with a lot of aggression. The search for effective and appropriate solutions to address the issue has been going on for a long time – solutions that fit in differently and better with the experience of people in psychological distress, where a power struggle is less likely to occur, and where the emphasis is more on the coping style of the person undergoing treatment. Alwin
Verdonk said: “Recornect believes in supporting service-users’ own strategies for regaining their equilibrium. One important focal point in a crisis situation is that everyone involved joins in the search for a solution. Restrictive care interventions can result in the individual’s self- management and independence being taken away. In such circumstances, the scope for the service-user to choose their own solution disappears, and so does their ownership of, and accountability for, the crisis situation. That is why it is key to focus on personal solution strategies, where everyone involved retains a degree of ownership and accountability. This also ensures that service-users maintain contact both with themselves and the personnel looking after them during a severe crisis – in turn enabling the recuperation process to begin.”
The importance of supportive technology Although the use of digital technology in mental healthcare is still relatively new, the prevalence of new technological developments in the social domain has had a significant impact – a trend that also
A typical en-suite room at the new mental healthcare facility on Merseyside’s Maghull Health Park. JULY 2020 | THE NETWORK
©Recornect ©Mersey Care
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