A PSYCHIATRIC intensive care unit (PICU) will open its doors next week to the most mentally disturbed patients in Worcestershire.

Your Worcester News has been given an exclusive tour of the £2 million PICU at the Elgar Unit in Newtown Hospital.

Patients will be admitted to the PICU on the Worcestershire Royal Hospital site in Newtown Road, Worcester, from Monday, May 19, if they are deemed too ill to be treated on an open ward.

Patients will be transferred from the county's four general admission wards - two in Worcester, one in Kidderminster and one in Redditch.

The nine-bed PICU will treat paranoid schizophrenics, people with drug-induced psychosis and bi-polar disorder (manic depression) and those who are suicidally depressed.

All patients treated there will have been detained under the Mental Health Act by police.

Next door to the PICU is a new 136 suite which will allow assessments to be carried out there rather than at the police custody suite in Worcester.

Derek Hammond, lead nurse at the PICU, was eager to reassure the public that the unit was not for treating sex offenders, as suggested by a Worcester News reader.

Mr Hammond, aged 42, said: "This is the extreme end of mental health care. These are extremely unwell, extremely disturbed people. A small percentage of the mentally ill are very distressed and disturbed - it's that small percentage we are here to care for.

"We're not looking after a lot of monsters. We are looking after people who are in need. They are human beings who have fallen on hard times who need our help.

It is good for the county and will give us recognition in mental health circles. It is already generating a lot of interest. There is nowhere better than this. There may be places as good as this but not better. This is gold standard."

The unit, paid for by the Department of Health, is surrounded by a five metre high metal fence to stop patients getting out. The fence encloses a garden and outdoor activity area where the trust plans to put in basketball nets and a goal for sports.

All the furniture inside is designed to be as safe and durable as possible with no sharp metal components or detachable parts which patients could use to hurt themselves or others.

The unit is for the 10 per cent of patients who need intensive psychiatric care - 90 per cent of patients who suffer mental illness will never see the inside of a PICU.

The nurse base which looks over the lounge area is built in a circle to give staff a 360 degree view of patients at all times.

CCTV and panic alarms have been fitted to keep staff and patients as safe as possible while mesh on each patient's room prevents them escaping or harming themselves.

The staff will include 23 nurses, a psychologist and an occupational therapist, although the trust wants to expand the number of nursing staff in future.

All staff are trained to manage "actual and potential" aggression so they can cope with the challenging behaviour of patients.

The running costs of the PICU will be met by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust but the trust will charge other health organisations for patients from outside Worcestershire who are treated at the facility.

Patients will be offered anger and anxiety management and other counselling but they will also have the opportunity for relaxation and recreation such as arts, crafts, music or even watching widescreen Sky television in the lounge area.

The aim is that patients are made well enough to be re-admitted to an open ward.

The previous PICU was a four-bedroom facility in Redditch and staff will be transferred to the new PICU in Worcester which serves Worcestershire as a whole.

PICU manager Simon Kerslake, who led the tour, said: "The previous PICU was quite dark and small where as this is larger and light and airy. This is really something quite impressive and the staff are really looking forward to working here.

"It's a safe environment. Some people, when they are mentally unwell, become destructive but it's very difficult to destroy anything in here."

The unit has already received genereous support from the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) which will contribute some of the £30,000 it has raised towards the furniture.