Archived: Audley Court

Updated 30 August 2019

Combat Stress is a national charity providing clinical treatment for veterans and reservists of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, merchant navy and other allied services who suffer from mental health problems, including psychological trauma, attributable to or associated with their service. It delivers therapeutic services regionally in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Central England and Wales and the South of England. The hub at Audley Court, and its satellite venues and home visiting services serve Wales and the Central England catchment area.

Combat Stress/Audley Court is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activity of the treatment of disease, disorder or injury. It provides a range of specialist treatment, for men and women, discharged from the armed forces who experience mental health problems associated with their time in and/or transition from military service. All patients accepted for treatment are assessed as low risk. Treatments and services include community mental health nursing, trauma focussed cognitive behavioural therapy, psychotherapeutic education and mindfulness programmes, occupational and art therapy, structured activities and peer support. Patients receive both individual and group-based treatments. Combat Stress/Audley Court’s specialist community mental health services are distinct and time limited. Where mental health services beyond the scope of the service are required, patients are referred to NHS and independent sector mental health services.

At the time of inspection, a senior manager at Combat Stress/Audley Court was in the process of applying to become registered manager.

Prior to 2011 Combat Stress/Audley Court provided a residential respite service for patients. This consisted of two weeks of residential care, often several times a year. The service then moved to providing a mixture of residential and mental health welfare services before finally settling on its current community based model of care in 2017. These changes had provoked concerns from patients who had previously found the respite model to be of benefit. The provider had addressed those concerns through their complaints procedure but not to the satisfaction of all their previous patients.

There have been a total of four inspections carried out at Audley Court and it was last inspected in 2015 when it received a rating of good. Residential respite is still provided at Christmas at other Combat Stress treatment centres and the provider works with the Royal British Legion to provide recovery breaks twice a year at Royal British Legion Premises.

Updated 30 August 2019

We rated Combat Stress/Audley Court, Specialist community-based mental health services for adults of working age as good because:

• The provider had a high standard of managerial, medical and clinical leadership and made effective use of multi-disciplinary team working.

• Clinical governance at Combat Stress/Audley Court was well established and linked to local and national quality improvement initiatives, research and audit.

• Risk assessment and care planning were of a high standard and helped clinicians and therapists provide safe care.

• The services provided were responsive to the needs of patients and based on the existing and emerging evidence for effective treatment.

• Combat Stress/Audley Court had been through a successful period of organisational change and redesign and developed a model of service that patients told them they found helpful and of high quality.

However;

• Patient feedback indicated that patients needed more help managing their physical health and accessing community activities

• Some staff thought that the provider had not effectively communicated the implications of organisational change for themselves and the service.

Updated 30 August 2019