Roehampton Hospital School works together with the multidisciplinary team (MDT), which provides various therapies and uses different approaches and therapies. This includes individual, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), equine, art, music, movement, drama and family therapy. Our daily timetable works alongside the therapy timetable to ensure young people get full access to education and therapy input.
Each child is assessed by the therapy team in the MDT to see what services would be appropriate for them. The MDT provides every young person with individual and family therapy at base level as a standard.
For sensory reasons, or reasons of safety, not every young person is appropriate for every extra therapy group. For example, music therapy can be noisy and overwhelming for some, and equine therapy takes place outside of the hospital at Richmond Park where other risk factors need to be considered.
If our young people are on the Eating Disorder ward, they also have to be physically stable to access therapy in different parts of the hospital.
DBT is provided for those who are committed to making a change in behaviour and a commitment to stay alive.
Young people are assessed by therapy staff, and asked how they feel about joining certain therapy groups. Ultimately, it is the voice of the young person that is most important to listen to when deciding what groups they join.
The young people we support are admitted to the hospital for many different reasons, including, psychosis, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation and eating disorders. Therapy is hugely important for each individual as the further understand the causes of their issues, and so maybe beginning to work through them toward their recovery.
For young people, their family is often the context, which their mental illness has flourished in. Therefore having a space to address family dynamics and patterns of behaviour is essential if they are to have a successful discharge home and back to the community.
In education, we encourage young people to go to therapy sessions, and leave space in the timetable so they aren’t in conflict.
All therapy sessions are provided in dedicated therapy rooms. The hospital therapy team are all qualified family therapists, individual psychodynamic therapists, DBT trained therapists, external drama therapists, external art therapists, external equine therapists and occupational therapists employed by The Priory Hospital Roehampton.
Roehampton Hospital School will support your child’s recovery as best we can. This includes encouraging their engagement with therapeutic input, and supporting the therapists in any way we can. We also liaise with the MDT to ensure any issues that surface in therapy, are shared with us to improve our support.
In school, we avoid topics that will trigger young people, and vet the work they are sent from their home school/colleges to avoid topics that are unsuitable and might cause unnecessary distress.