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Chapter 23 - Female-Only PICUs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2024

By
Joana Ferreira Marques de Paiva  and
Shanika Balachandra
Edited by
Roland Dix ,
Stephen Dye  and
Stephen M. Pereira
Roland Dix
Affiliation:
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, Gloucester
Stephen Dye
Affiliation:
Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, Ipswich
Stephen M. Pereira
Affiliation:
Keats House, London
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Summary

When psychiatric intensive care units (PICUs) were first created in the United Kingdom, they were mixed-sex wards. As time progressed, evidence grew stronger for the need to create separate PICUs for men and women. Female-only PICUs have been around for about a decade, making them a relatively novel phenomenon within the existing mental health services in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role within the wide net of mental health services. This chapter summarises the history and development of female-only PICUs and describes some female-specific characteristics of such wards. It then focuses on describing women-specific perinatal mental health presentations and services, including existing provisions for women with mental illness to access family support and contact with their children. Lastly, it discusses the clinical considerations for patients with EUPD and ASPD to access PICU settings.

Keywords

child and family services (CFS)emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD)psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU)female-only PICUgendermother-baby unit (MBU)postpartum depression (PPD)postpartum psychosis (PPP)
Type
Chapter
Information
Psychiatric Intensive Care , pp. 286 - 294
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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