NEWS
Safevent meets tough US standards
Britplas’s Safevent window has been fitted throughout The Green Mountain Psychiatric Care Center, a new eight- bedded Level 1 inpatient psychiatric unit in Morrisville, Vermont. After Kevin Gorman, chairman of
UK-based Britplas, held initial talks in 2012 with Francis Pitts, from New York-based Architecture+, the architect visited Britplas’s Warrington headquarters, and saw the Design in Mental Health Network’s ‘Better Bedroom’. Although greatly impressed with the design and integrity of the Safevent window, he advised that the tests devised for the UK market would not be acceptable for inclusion onto the supply chain for the New York Office of Mental Health. Britplas then undertook the relevant rigorous
testing required for the US markets – including air, water, and structural testing (AAMA/WDMA/ CSA101/I.S.2/A440), for an AW rating, ASTM
CLEVER WINDOW DEVICE PLAYS DETECTIVE
F588 Forced Entry Resistance tests, and Human Impact ‘Drop Tests’ – before tendering, subsequently winning the contract. While localised, experienced labour provided
by the main contractor was used throughout the installation, Britplas provided professional site supervision and fitting back-up.
Secure solution for new inpatient unit
Providing protection and safety for staff and patients in secure mental health facilities is challenging. The latest such Stanley Security project has
seen the company design a complete security solution for a new acute inpatient mental health unit which will house 64 adult mental health beds, split into four wards, and a 16-bed adult learning disability ward, in Hertfordshire.
The system features PAC access control on
internal doors, CCTV, an intruder alarm in the pharmacy, video door entry on specified ward and main entrances, assistance call points in all bedrooms, and a Bodyguard staff protection system that enables the location and integrity of the staff alarm mobiles to be constantly monitored. Mobiles can send three different alarm types, and mobile identity and location, to rapidly summon assistance. These systems have been fully integrated to
work seamlessly, with all system alarms transmitted to one or more staff alarm mobiles. Should an unauthorised person try to gain access, the access control alerts the CCTV system, and the mobile handheld units associated with that area. The mobiles are also alerted to alarms from service users’ rooms, and unanswered calls from the door entry system.
College ‘delighted’ at response to paper
The College of Social Work says it was ‘delighted’ at the sector’s response to its paper, The Role of the Social worker in Adult Mental Health Services, launched at the House of Commons last Spring. The College said: “Social workers have a
key role to play in encouraging a wider acceptance and reducing the endemic stigma of mental health conditions. As the professional body for social work, it is our job to uphold standards across the profession. Relationships are the golden thread – working with people’s individual capabilities, and supporting them to solve their own problems and challenges. Social workers achieve this by working closely with service- users, carers, families, and communities, to effect real change in people’s lives. We can
8 THE NETWORK January 2015
also help ensure that those with lived experience of mental health conditions can shape the services they receive. “Our paper provides a firm foundation for
local services to review their current use of mental health social workers – valuable practitioners, able to make a real impact in partnership with the individuals and families they support. A key focus in 2015 will be the commissioning landscape – social workers can be the lynchpins for integration, providing leadership in multi-disciplinary teams, and ensuring that the ‘team is placed around the person’, rather than individuals having to fit around their health and social care teams.”
To get involved, visit
www.tcsw.org.uk – for the latest news and events.
Specialist fenestration company, Britplas’s new Safevent Smart is ‘an optional and highly innovative enhancement’ to its multi award- winning Safevent window. Safevent Smart is ‘an intelligent monitoring device’ for secure environments. When fitted to a Safevent window, it detects if the window is subject to unusual forces which may indicate an attempt at attack, escape, or personal injury. Such an event triggers an alert to the nursing station or Britplas’s ‘24/7’ monitoring service, so that staff can intervene and prevent a serious incident occurring.
Reducing disruption
during upgrades A new version of the company’s ‘safe-door system’ for mental healthcare applications, that allows doorsets to be replaced within two hours – developed following customer feedback about the cost and disruption of decanting service- users for doorset replacement – has been introduced by Safehinge. SWIFTdor maintains the ‘superior safety
levels’ of Safehinge’s original safe-door system, Symphony, but now also incorporates a rapid installation frame. The company said: “There is no complicated preparation work prior to installation, and the built-in architraves cover the wall surrounding the opening, so there is no need to redecorate afterwards. The frame’s robust construction means it can withstand the toughest knock and bumps.” Like Symphony, SWIFTdor ‘offers maximum
safety for service-users and staff’, with its anti- ligature, anti-barricade, and fire-rated design. Its discrete aesthetics ‘help deinstitutionalise’ mental health environments, Symphony, which won the Product
Innovation of the Year at the Design in Mental Health Awards 2014 dinner, and SWIFTdor, were developed in partnership with DORMA and Primera Life.
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