Wolfson House

Wolfson House provides low secure mental health services for North East London . The service covers: The City of London and the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering and Barking and Dagenham. Patients are admitted to forensic services from acute mental health services where specialist support is indicated, courts, prisons and by instruction from the Ministry of Justice.

Address

311-315 Green Lanes
London
N4 2ES
United Kingdom

Opening hours

This is a 24 hour care facility open 365 days of the year

Telephone number

020 3222 7100/1/2

Low Secure Treatment and Rehabilitation

Wolfson House is a male-only facility that provides a low secure setting and is focused on rehabilitation and preparing service users to be discharged home or into a residential accommodation. The aim is to give service users the skills to run their own lives and gain a good quality of life. This includes equipping them to cook, shop, eat healthily, manage their money, budget, look after their room/flat and manage their relationships and their overall health.

Step-down Forensic Services

The John Howard Centre, located in Homerton, is the medium secure rehabilitation unit stage of the service. Wolfson House is a 'step-down' facility.

Forensic services provide treatment and rehabilitation for people with a mental health problem who have been arrested, who are on remand or who have been to court and found guilty of a crime. Most people are detained in secure forensic services under mental health legislation.

The length of time spent in forensic units depends on an individual’s recovery and progress towards rehabilitation. Professionals who work in forensic mental health services take decisions about length of stay in collaboration with the professionals who will be responsible for an individual's support and care following discharge. If someone has been found guilty of a violent offence, or has been considered to be dangerous, the Ministry of Justice and Parole Board are involved in decisions about discharge

‘Forensic’ means ‘pertaining to the law’. These services are an alternative to prison for people who have a mental health problem and offer specialist treatment and care. They are ‘secure’ units, which means that people who are referred there are not free to come and go.

The philosophy and aims of the forensic rehabilitation service are encompassed by the recovery model. This is a patient centred model that focuses on patient empowerment, collaboration and aims to enable each individual’s journey of recovery

Our forensic services provide assessment, treatment interventions and care to service users diagnosed with a range of mental health conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis and other serious mental health symptoms.

Not everyone who has a mental health problem and comes into contact with the police or the courts will be referred to forensic services. Many people who have offended do get sent to prison.

When someone is admitted onto one of our wards, it is important that families and friends continue to support them.

It is a good idea to telephone the ward first to find out the visiting times and when is a good time to visit the person.

Our visiting times are usually from 2pm-8pm. But if you are coming a long way or will not be able to visit during those times, contact the ward manager. They will try to accommodate your needs.

Service users will appreciate small gifts, treats and items that they can use when in hospital. But mostly they will appreciate a conversation with you and news from the outside world.

Because we have to ensure our wards are safe and healthy, there are a number of items that you cannot bring onto our wards. Additionally, all our forensic service sites have specific security arrangements and protocols which all staff, patients and visitors have to comply with. This includes depositing mobile phones, camera, etc. into lockers provided in the main entrance.

Children can visit by arrangement only. Speak to the ward manager in the first instance. There is a Family Visiting Room near the main entrance to support family visits.

There is more information here >>

The role of families and friends in supporting our service users is vital. We have put together a pack for carers to help understand our service, which can be downloaded here [make this clickable].

We work hard to explain what is happening with the care of individuals in the unit. We may not always get things right in our communication with you. So if you want to speak to someone about any aspect of the care and treatment your friend or relative is receiving, their social worker is a good point of contact, or email us on elft.forensiccarercontact@nhs.net We will get back to you to talk things through.

Carers sometimes come to Care Programme Approach (CPA) meetings to contribute their views and hear about how things have been progressing. Carers can also arrange to speak to the consultant psychiatrist. Again, please use the contact details above if you do not know who to get in touch with.

Sometimes our service users do not want their information shared with family members, which can be hard for families who want to help. Whilst service users have that right to confidentiality, we can still discuss some things with you and hear what you have to say.

If you have a friend of family member receiving our services, please do consider coming to one of our open days or consider joining our Friends and Families Forum. Let us know you are interested by sending an email to this address elft.forensiccarercontact@nhs.net

Our service users and former service users are uniquely well placed to improve what we do. We are delighted that our service users contribute to management of the unit through the User Involvement Group. Service Users are key members of a number of our Quality Improvement Projects and run courses at our popular Recovery Colleges.

We have therapeutic groups that are led by or facilitated by service users and we have a range of Peer Support Workers who are paid members of staff whose own lived experience helps them to help others receiving care. This also helps in our drive to reduce inequalities, for example with a specific service-user led group for black service users.