“Exceptional” £65m centre to provide mental health care for young people
Mental health experts from will provide care for children in a £65million new complex beside one of the world’s best-known psychiatric hospitals.
The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People will bring together top psychiatric medics in care and research under one roof, in Denmark Hill, Camberwell.
Its consultants will be from two of the biggest names in London healthcare – South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) and King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN).
The two, which already have a long history of working together in Denmark Hill, will create an “exceptional” care centre for young people at the Denmark Hill site of the Maudsley – the largest mental health training centre in the UK, which celebrates its centenary in 2023.
The new hub will focus on research to identify mental ill health, which could transform its treatment for young people across the globe.
They want the new centre, whose name comes as a result of a £5.5m donation from The Pears Foundation, to be a national beacon of excellence and be the home of world class research.
It will be designed to “enable clinicians and scientists to collaborate and identify treatments to make a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families”.
The aim is to launch ground-breaking research into the causes of mental health difficulties – and to halve the time it takes to bring children and families new treatments.
The initial focus will be on mothers and babies, child trauma, self-harm, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), autism, anxiety, depression and digital technologies.
Both organisations will ensure the findings of their research have long-term impact.
SLaM chief executive David Bradley said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform mental health care and research for children and young people in the UK and beyond.
“We are excited by the possibilities that the new centre can bring in supporting our children and young people and making those breakthroughs in research that will help us to deliver world class care and treatment.
“We are proud that young people have been at the heart of designing the new centre to ensure that we create the best possible environment for them.”
The building will also provide a new home for the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School, which provides classes for young inpatients to keep up their schooling.
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Pictured is an artist’s impression of what the new centre will look like.