Psychiatric Intensive Care Units or PICUs are specialist twenty-four hour inpatient wards that provide
intensive assessment and
comprehensive treatment to individuals during the most acute phase of a serious
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
.
Most individuals only stay on PICU wards for a very short time and are moved as soon as the crisis is over or the risky behaviours are under control. 2014 guidance says that the maximum length of stay should be 8 weeks.
Normally, patients are discharged to acute psychiatric wards, but some patients go straight home.
PICUs are locked and more secure wards, and have a low patient capacity when compared to open psychiatric wards. They have higher levels of staffing and are usually single-sex.
[
PICUs have a diverse range of staff, including: mental health nurses, ]psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
s, psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
s, pharmacist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...
s, occupational therapist
Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use evidence-based practice, scientific bases and a Holism, holistic perspec ...
s, social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
ers, activities co-ordinators, health care support workers, and ward managers.seclusion room
A padded cell or seclusion room is a controversial enclosure used in a psychiatric hospital or a special education setting in a private or public school, in which there are cushions lining the walls and sometimes has a cushioned floor as well ...
for the management of violence and aggression. Other restrictive practices include rapid tranquillisation
Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to:
Hydrological features
* Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow
* Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States
* Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City
Sports ...
, ECT and high dose antipsychotics
Antipsychotics, previously known as neuroleptics and major tranquilizers, are a class of psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizo ...
.
References
External links
NAPICU website
Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care
{{Authority control
Treatment of mental disorders