Priority House, Maidstone

Priority House in Maidstone is part of Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, delivering specialist mental health services to the local community.

NHS Priority House has 5 wards (our 5th ward, the Ruby Ward, opened in March 2024) - acute psychiatric wards offering assessment and treatment interventions to people who are acutely unwell.

The wards are single gender and comprise both younger adults and older adults depending on their presenting needs.

The Trust-wide ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) service is also based at Priority House and facilitates ECT to both inpatients and outpatients as determined by their consultant. This is a treatment that is extremely effective and is used following patients trying several drug treatments without success.

Types of care offered at Priority House

• Acute inpatient psychiatric care
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
• Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT)
• Place of Safety (Section 136 suite)
• Police clinical advice line (836-phone line)

Priority House also has the CRHT (crisis resolution and home treatment team) services based within it. The CRHT support patients through a safe and effective community-based treatment in the least restrictive and most appropriate environment - it is for those who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

The Place of Safety West is also here and they are the receiving service for patients who have been put on a S136 by the police and require a safe and supportive environment whilst they await a MHA assessment.

Finally, the 836-phone clinical advice line is a service for the police to use when they are concerned about a person’s mental health to determine the support that may be required and offer a MHA assessment if appropriate to do so.

The building also has some corporate and support services based within it, as well as some hot-desking facilities.

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Careers at Priority House

Nurses

The nurse positions we employ are Nursing Associate, Newly Registered Nurse, Staff Nurse, Charge Nurse, Senior Nurse. We also employ matrons and a chief nurse (although they do not operate just for Priority House and they are not based here).

All staff will be expected to get involved with personal care.

As with our HCAs, nurses might have to assist with some basic personal care for our patients - this is especially so for our mental health nurses. Our mental health nurses will be required to assist with medication management and administering medication.

Physical health nurses are there as experts on physical health conditions and presentations. Nurses will be involved in our ward rounds and ward meetings, and will be ensuring the correct management of the legal aspects of the mental health act.

Nurses can expect to have contact with carers and relatives of patients too.We are happy to take our nurses straight from university, entering employment at Band 5. Of course, it’s great if you have had a placement with us, but it is certainly not necessary. Those who have had a placement with us will tend to be fast-tracked into a job role within the Trust.

Our physical health nurses do not need any mental health care experience - it is not a requirement we look for.

Mental health nurses lead shifts, coordinating quality patient care, implementing therapeutic interventions and administering medication.

Nurses will be considering the medical requirements of patients and monitoring physical as well as mental health.

Our nurses develop strong communication skills so that they can work successfully within the multidisciplinary team (MDT) of psychiatrists, psychologists and healthcare workers, as well as within the multi-agency team where required (police, social care colleagues, KMPT discharge coordinators and others).

Matrons

Matrons are an integral part of the senior clinical leadership team. They uphold, monitor and maintain the highest standards of patient care, in line with national and local quality guidelines. Matrons are allocated to specific wards and are responsive across the locality as required.

Healthcare Workers

This is our largest body of employees. Each shift will see two nurses and four healthcare workers on every ward. Day-to-day you will be working with patients and observing patients. You’ll have a good deal of interaction with patients, and be able to provide them with therapeutic activities too. Where a patient is at risk to themselves you may be asked to provide 1-2-1 support and observation, monitor and complete the necessary forms.

Our healthcare workers are there to support patients with their personal care, daily living and from time-to-time will be required to accompany them on escorted leave.

You will work alongside your nursing colleagues, occupational therapists (working together to design therapeutic activities), psychiatrists and psychologists. In fact, you support all of the team!

Our HCAs are very ‘hands-on’ and are able to spend a lot of time with patients, as well as the other qualified staff. It is therefore a very active role with a great deal of interaction. This will suit someone who enjoys being a ‘people person’. For instance, you will be supporting meal times, encouraging patients to have their medication and of course, assisting them with their emotional needs.

HCAs at Priority House will join some of the activity groups that are facilitated by our Occupational Therapists (OTs). And you’ll be encouraged to facilitate some of the more informal therapeutic activities for patients. You will generally spend time with them, talking with them, reassuring them. Finally, HCAs have the opportunity to take patients out on escorted leave.

We do not require HCAs to have had prior experience. We offer and provide training - on the job training and also induction and training courses provided for by Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. You will need to study for your care certificate.

Our HCAs also learn through role modelling and working alongside staff - learning through osmosis!

Peer support workers

We aspire to employ more peer support workers as it’s a valuable role within the team - you would have personal experience of mental health issues and so you are able to provide a slightly different service to patients, including elements of coaching.

Occupational Therapists

The O.T provides assessment & therapeutic interventions. These may include cooking, creative, physical activities among others. Our OTs will plan and implement therapeutic activities. For instance, you might help them in the kitchen, assist them with rehabilitating their cooking skills or join them in artwork therapy. You’ll work closely with the healthcare workers to design therapeutic activities. As one of our OTs, you’re helping to treat our patients by building their independence, teaching them new skills, and rehabilitating them.

As an OT at Priority House you will be assessing our patients’ abilities with personal care tasks, cooking, money management, public transport, work, leisure, education and helping them liaise with social services about care packages they might need - depending on their abilities.

You will feed information back during meetings to the MDT for ward rounds, and also for meetings with the patient and their family.

Psychologists & Psychiatrists

Our psychologists provide psychotherapy, therapeutic intervention and talking with our patients about their mental health needs.

We employ a psychiatrist on each ward. They are responsible for their ward, taking decisions about the patients, meeting patients, advising on treatment and care and diagnosing. Each of our psychiatrists work within the MDT, but are there to also authorise the legal aspects of each person’s care, working within the mental health framework and making decisions around discharge. This is a clinical and ward leadership role with considerable responsibility.

Career development

All of the qualified nurses who join us at Band 5 are placed on our preceptorship program, lasting 12 months. This helps establish you in your role and offers support as you grow into it.

Diversify your career

Within the Trust we can offer a wide choice of opportunities for employees to diversify into different clinical areas and roles. For instance, we can provide career opportunities with different services and functions: community healthcare, forensic healthcare, mother and baby, drugs and alcohol, as well as learning disabilities.

Step into management

If you feel that you would like to evolve your career into a management position we can provide a large package around Management Essentials, allowing you to take some of your management training right here in our Trust. Let us support your journey!

Career defining training

Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust positively encourages people to take up training courses through NHS England. For instance, the Mary Seacole leadership development programme and, for those who want to progress further, taking a Masters with advanced qualifications such as nurse prescribing courses.

Courses and training are available and supported for those who wish to pursue them. We are happy to explain in more detail, but most of our training is funded - especially if it is directly related to your work.

If your training is part of an apprenticeship programme then you will usually be offered the chance to take a study day each week.

Our culture and values

From away-days for team cohesion to ensuring everyone is heard, we strive to help people feel supported and heard.

Inclusion

We provide support groups for people with these protected characteristics:

• LGBTQ+
• Disabilities
• Religion
• Equality and Diversity

There are EDI leads within our organisation who are very engaged and active. As a Trust we are always looking at our DEI culture, and how it can evolve and improve. To do that, we frequently run surveys and build training that we learn from them.

We believe passionately that inclusion is vital and are proud to say we welcome all walks of life, offer flexibility and support. This helps people feel at home and safe and also helps us drive up our retention success levels.

We support the freedom to speak up, with the ‘Speak Up Guardian’ system in place.

Wellness

We promote wellness within the Trust and support this with a number of initiatives from the menopause cafe to the Schwartz round, and facilitate these initiatives through a wellness lead for the Trust.

Be heard

Staff engagement sessions help to make sure people feel heard across the organisation. We believe it is vital that employees feel that they have a voice. This is why we launched our ‘Speak to Sheila’ sessions each month where anyone can speak with our newly appointed Chief Executive.Our Chief People’s Officer is always on hand and happy to receive staff concerns.

Practical information about working in Maidstone, Kent

Priority House is within walking distance from Maidstone town centre. But for those driving here, we are very pleased to say that we have parking available for staff, and that it is free! We try to make it as easy as possible to come and go from Priority House by car. This includes disabled parking and a drop off zone. To help staff who drive electric cars, we are installing EV charging stations.For those who wish to take other transport, we are close to the local train station (Barming) - staff are able to walk from there, or cycle (we have bike racks).

Local amenities

There are plenty of schools in the area, so for those who are considering relocating with a young family, you will be well served. There’s also a college, Mid Kent College, as well as Canterbury University’s Medway campus approximately 10 miles away.Maidstone has a leisure centre, a swimming pool, plenty of green spaces. There are beaches in Kent - about 45 minutes drive to the coast. There are a choice of restaurants, as well as the Blue Water shopping centre, while trips into the centre of London take just 50 minutes by train.