UK’s only mental health inpatient unit for Deaf children closed pending ‘review’, NHS Trust confirms (BSL)

Corner House, the only mental health inpatient unit in the UK offering specialist support to Deaf children aged eight to 18, has closed pending a “review” of its services.

The closure is temporary, while the review aims to “enhance” the provision at the national service.

The six-bed unit at Springfield University Hospital is run by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG), which confirmed the news to The Limping Chicken this week.

The review was launched in August, though The Limping Chicken has been unable to find information about the decision on its website or on the Trust’s official social media channels that month.

In a statement, an SWLSTG spokesperson said: “Corner House provides vital services to Deaf children and young people. To make sure that we continue to improve the service and ensure it is as accessible, responsive, flexible and high quality as possible, we are conducting a review, working in partnership with families, carers and the wider national Deaf CAMHS [Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services] community.

“Working together we are developing the best way of providing mental health care to Deaf children and young people, ready for reopening the service which we aim to do as soon as possible.

“While conducting the review, we are continuing to provide services for young people who need them, including using our expert staff to support local mental health teams to care for young people.”

The Limping Chicken understands Deaf children and young people in need of inpatient care during the ongoing review are being admitted to general adolescent mental health units, where they are supported by staff from local and specialist staff from Deaf CAMHS.

Bryony Parkes, head of children and young people strategy at the Deaf health charity SignHealth, said: “Here at SignHealth we look forward to seeing the outcome of the review and to continue working with Deaf CAMHS and NHS England to ensure that Deaf children and young people receive the best support and care possible.

“We know that Deaf children and young people are at significantly increased risk of poor mental health and it is therefore vital that specialist services continue to be commissioned in order to meet our community’s needs.”

The National Deaf Children’s Society declined to comment.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update – 14:00: In an additional statement in response to a question around the publicising of the temporary review and lack of a press release on the news, an SWLSTG spokesperson said: “We have reached out for input from those directly affected including service users and families.

“Stakeholder meetings have included hearing and deaf staff working across the country in NDCAMHS [National Deaf CAMHS], as well as representatives from NDCS and SignHealth.

“A formal review of national Deaf CAMHS services is planned by NHSE [NHS England] for 2024 and we will be participating in this in due course.”