Amber Lodge

Welcome to Amber Lodge at the Becton Centre, a day unit where we offer intensive outreach support and see young people aged 5-11 who have serious and complex mental health problems.

We are a regional unit and children are referred to us from community CAMHS teams in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and North Derbyshire.

It is important to us that children and families feel comfortable talking to us, and that we work together to help children with serious and complex mental health and emotional difficulties.

Conditions

We see patients who have a variety of conditions including:

• autism spectrum disorders
• eating disorders
• learning disabilities
• mood disorders
• neurodevelopmental disorders
• obsessive compulsive disorder
• psychiatric problems
• psychosis
• self-harm.

Services

• Comprehensive mental health assessment and treatment
• Psychological assessment and treatment
• Care/treatment planning, including working with the young person’s family and carers
• Access to physical health assessment and appropriate treatment and advice – links to and support of The Children’s Hospital, Sheffield
• Risk assessment/risk management
• Activity programme, including social and recreational activities, as well as therapeutic groups
• Education provided on site by professional teaching staff from the Becton School (view the Becton School Ofsted inspection report)
• Family therapy/family work and psycho educational support for families
• Occupational therapy – sensory assessments
• Art psychotherapy
• Psychotherapy – assessment and treatment
• Access to speech and language input
• Medication review and prescribing

Find out more about referring to us.

Take a tour around the Becton Centre – video

Getting to know you

After a referral is accepted we spend about six weeks getting to know the family and the child and identifying the goals of our work and what we will do. This is called ‘Meeting and Planning’.

Often our plan includes assessment of complex developmental and psychosocial problems, individual work with the child and work with the family to help them understand and manage their difficulties. The plan also includes liaison with education and other services.

Working with families

We can work quite intensively with families and try to negotiate appointments to suit them. Our multidisciplinary team has the flexibility to meet parents at home, to visit children in their homes and schools and to provide therapies at Amber Lodge. Some children also attend our Day Unit.

Visiting Amber Lodge

Children may attend our Day Unit one, two or sometimes three days a week and we arrange taxis for the journey to and from Amber Lodge. During their stay on the Day Unit we engage the children in a range of therapies and group work. We also have an excellent educational service on site.

There are lots of fun facilities and play spaces at Amber Lodge and usually children love it here.

Patient reviews

We hold regular reviews so that everyone knows how we are meeting our goals and can agree on the next steps. Usually our involvement with a child and family is for between six and twelve months. After our spell of care, we will agree what work the community teams can provide to follow up our work.

Information leaflets about Amber Lodge, for referrers, parents and children are available