Onyx Ward (Luton)

Onyx Ward is an acute mental health inpatient service in Luton that provides 24-hour treatment and care for 20 male patients in a safe and therapeutic place.

The team actively engage and involve people who are experiencing an acute mental health episode that cannot be managed in a less restrictive setting, owing to the degree of risk, clinical need or patient choice.

Many of those admitted will require detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Amendment Act 2007. Where necessary, intense supervision and support will be provided.

Patients receive individualised care and treatment based on the Care Programme Approach (CPA) which highlights crisis management and a place of safety, specialised risk assessments and risk management, intensive assessment, treatment and therapy, stabilisation of acute symptoms and relapse prevention.

The service offers:

• Assistance to acquire and enhance coping skills that promote and enable self-help and the self-management of mental health problems and difficulties
• Collaborative, structured approach towards assisting people to achieve their own recovery
• Diverse range of care
• Individualised planning of treatment and care
• Specialist mental health and risk assessment.  

Teams in these wards work closely with our Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams (CRHT ) and the Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs).