West London Mental Health NHS Trust

St. Bernard's Hospital

NHS Trust
Trust name	West London Mental Healthcare NHS Trust
Location
Place	Southall
County	Greater London
Services
Hospital type	Psychiatric
Psychiatric ICU present?	Yes
Adolescent Secure present?	Yes- male
Local Secure present?	Yes
Medium Secure present?	Yes- male; Yes- female
High Secure available?	No, but available off-site at (Broadmoor)
Statistics
No. of employees	~ 3,500
In patients	See: for each unit
Out patients
History of St. Bernard's
Key dates	* Opened 16 May 1832. * Present Trust established 1 October 2000
Links
Website	West London Mental Health NHS Trust
	National Health Service List of UK Hospitals

West London Mental Healthcare NHS Trust (WLMHT) was established 1 October 2000.

The headquarters is at 1 Armstrong Way, Southall, near to the St Bernard's Hospital site. This is on the south side of the Uxbridge Road between the towns of Southall and Hanwell and 8½ miles west from London, in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England.

Services are spread across 25 sites, notably including Broadmoor Hospital, and the trust employs around 3,500 people, serving a local population of over 700,000 and treating more than 35,000 people each year. Due to its larger remit there are seven executive directors, and eight non-executive directors. Currently the trust is in the process becoming a NHS Foundation Trust. It has been embroiled in a series of controversies, however, involving millions of pounds of unaccounted overspend, poor Care Quality Commission reports and whistleblower allegations of a bullying management style; the Chief Executive retired in 2015.

The trust's services based at St Bernard's Hospital in west London occupy some of the original buildings once known as Hanwell Asylum.

Here the first superintendent Dr (later Sir) William & Mrs Mildred Ellis who were so much impressed with Moral therapy and humane treatment they saw offered to people suffering Mental disorders at the Quaker Asylum in York that they both imposed these methods on the staff at Hanwell. This was as such the very first large scale experiment. The second superintendent brought mechanical restraints – as a form of treatment – back. The third superintendent Dr John Conolly against stiff opposition backed up with much vitriol, took the example further, and did away with all mechanical restraints. To the surprise and disbelief of many he found, like the Ellises before, that bedlam diminished, behaviour became less defensive and cooperation improved dramatically, and many recovered or much improved. This event added to his other pioneering work such as developing proper diets and conditions for his patients and battles to set up regular training lecture specialising in mental health, for doctor training, all led to him receiving worldwide recognition.

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Wikipedia