Health and wellbeing

Working with young people to support their physical and emotional wellbeing

Swanwick Lodge has partnered with local NHS Trust, Southern Health, to provide all its children with an integrated health and wellbeing service.

This NHS-run service enables our children to access the physical and emotional health and wellbeing services all children have available to them, along with specialist services that they need, to help them recover from experiences which have made them vulnerable. It will also help them to develop positive relationships and to resettle in and contribute positively to their communities, improving their future lives.

The integrated health and wellbeing service puts each child at the centre of decision-making about their care to help them reduce harmful behaviours, such as smoking and substance misuse, and to make more positive health choices to aid their physical, emotional and mental health.

Each child admitted to Swanwick Lodge will have their health needs assessed and a health care plan developed, which is kept under review. This will be developed in conjunction with the young person and, where appropriate, their family will be asked to provide information too. The Health Care Plan sets out how their individual health related needs will be met.

At Swanwick Lodge, we continually observe the wellbeing of children in our care and will seek advice from the Integrated Health and Wellbeing Team should any concerns arise. Whilst staff are trained in first aid and can seek advice from NHS 111, diagnosis of any illness or condition is left to a medical practitioner and, when in doubt, staff will seek medical assistance.

The Southern Health team consists of a number of different health care professionals including:

  • public health nurse
  • occupational therapists
  • mental health practitioners
  • recovery workers
  • psychiatrist
  • psychologists
  • service manager

The team also partners with a range of existing local services such as Solent Sexual Health Services; Smokefree Hampshire (the stop smoking service); Catch22 (the local substance misuse service for young people); and the local GP practice, Brook Lane. Each child will also have access to a dentist, optician and other health services as required.

The Integrated Health and Wellbeing Service works collaboratively with Hampshire County Council’s social care and education teams. It builds on Southern Health’s long history of well-established services in the county - delivering physical and mental healthcare, emotional wellbeing and public health services to a wide range of children, young people and families.

A care worker talking to someone holding their head with stress