The Police Treatment Centres Reopening Schedule
3 September 2020
PTC Reopening Statement
We are pleased to announce that The Police Treatment Centres will be opening its doors again from Monday 7th September.
Please see below for a full statement from our CEO, Patrick Cairns. This outlines the upcoming reopening schedule for both Centres, COVID secure measures we have put in place and our plans for the coming months.
PTC Branded Facemasks
In addition to the information provided regarding the reopening of both centres, we would also like to take the opportunity to inform you of the availability to all our constituent Police Federations of our very own, branded Police Treatment Centre facemasks.
Please click here to view our branded facemasks: https://www.thepolicetreatmentcentres.org/ptcfacemask
Statement from CEO, Patrick Cairns
“As you will know, due to the current Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the Police Treatment Centres took the difficult decision in March to close both of our Centres to Patients, St Andrews & Castlebrae, until further notice. The Centres remained open for essential administration, Health and Safety and maintenance with a very small key number of employees on site.
We are now pleased to be able to share with you that both Centres will be able to reopen from Monday 7th September.
Our priority is to ensure we keep both our employees and our Patients safe and so to adhere to government and clinical guidance both Centres will initially reopen at a reduced capacity. This means that although we intend to run our Psychological Wellbeing Programme at full capacity from Monday 7 September, we will at first treat reduced numbers for our Physiotherapy Programme.
As our priority remains Patients, we shall not be running Hospitality B&B weekend breaks for the foreseeable future, which includes partners at weekends. We do hope to get these breaks back up and running as soon as possible.
You will also notice other changes when you attend the Centres, such as a one-way system, social distancing measures and some changes to classes. All attendees will be asked to complete a screening questionnaire prior to arrival and again at admission where a temperature test will also take place. We do know that this is a lot to think about as we all adjust to new ways of doing things. We remain confident that you will still find the Centres a safe and relaxing space to focus on your personal health and wellbeing and receive the maximum benefit from your stay.
In terms of future bookings, our Clinical Teams have now contacted all the Officers who unfortunately had their residential treatment cancelled in March. The Team have been assessing Patient needs to make a joint decision as to whether a residential stay is still required, in order to achieve the maximum benefit. Once the team had all the information required, we have sought to rebook individuals as swiftly as possible.
For now, we are prioritising the admission of those patients that had applied for treatment before we closed. Unfortunately, this means that at this stage we are unable to accept any new applications for treatment for either of our Psychological Wellbeing and Physiotherapy Programmes. However, all of our clinical teams are working hard to deal with this backlog and we hope to be able to open up to new applications for both programmes in the very near future.
In order to assess the needs of our Physiotherapy Patients, we have carried out virtual triaging using the “Attend Anywhere” platform which is a confidential video consultation software recommended by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). “Attend Anywhere” allows us to create a virtual Face to Face consultation by our expert clinicians for our Patients and is at the leading edge of using video technology in the health sector.
It also allows us an exciting opportunity to be able to offer a wider range of treatment options. Remote treatments can be offered where appropriate and a virtual out-patient programme can be considered in due course for donating Officers, who may be unable to travel to the centres, or who do not require the intensive treatment offered on our residential programmes. This new system is designed to supplement our existing range of treatment options and will not replace but rather reinforce and add to our class leading residential stay and treatment experience.
Where possible during the closure of the PTC we have endeavoured to maintain contact with our donors and patients and one of the ways that we have done so, is by the acquisition and roll out of a new Mental Health App called “Thrive”. This is the only NHS approved Mental Health App available in the UK and we have worked closely with its developers to customise it for the Police Treatment Centres to support Mental Health and Wellbeing for you, our Patients. This App was finalised some months ago and has now been rolled out and used by many hundreds of our patients to help them manage stress, improve wellbeing and to build resilience in order to tackle common issues effectively.
Many of you will be aware that we had planned to commence the build of a new clinical wing at our Harrogate Centre in March 2020. We are delighted to say that notwithstanding some of the difficulties that we have faced, we have managed to keep the build project going which is now well advanced.
It is a multi-million pound project that will allow us to increase the number of bedrooms in the centre by 20, provide extra counselling rooms, complementary therapy rooms and meeting facilities and to double the number of places available for the Psychological Wellbeing Programme. The period of closure has also allowed us time to reflect on how we can further improve our Wellbeing provision for all our Police Patients and to ensure that we provide the very best treatment for the finest police officers in the world.
The build is now scheduled to be completed in Spring 2021 and we know that it is going to significantly improve our treatment that we are able to deliver for Wellbeing issues and improve our already superb facilities at the PTC.
St George’s Children’s Trust (SGPCT) has remained active during the period of the closure; we have continued to make payments to all our existing beneficiaries and we have taken on a number of new ones.
SGPCT has been able to uphold its aim to provide a helping hand for when the unimaginable happens. We have continued to process all new applications swiftly during the pandemic and paid all claims and allowances promptly. SGPCT is an important charity for many of our beneficiaries and we were determined that we would continue to provide the vital support that our beneficiaries needed during the lockdown and we have done so.
The last six months have been an incredibly frustrating and difficult time for all of us and we are very much aware that our Police Family Members have played a huge role in contributing to the safety and health of our country.
For many of you we know this has imposed its own stresses and strains and we are now looking forward to getting back to work so that we can provide the treatment and support that we know many of you need when you come to the PTC.
We hope that this update has provided you with some information on what we have been doing over the last five months and reassured you that we are now ready to resume treatment for our Police Patients in a safe manner for them and all of our employees.
We would like to thank you for your continued support in these challenging times and we look forward to seeing you back at the PTC in the near future.”
Kind regards,
Donor Engagement Team
The Police Treatment Centres & St George’s Police Children Trust
www.thepolicetreatmentcentres.org
www.stgeorgespolicechildrentrust.org
Tel: 01423 504448
Email: fundraising@thepolicetreatmentcentres.org
Coronavirus
We will be constantly updating our advice on coronavirus. For the latest information please click on the link below
https://www.thepolicetreatmentcentres.org/news/
The Police Treatment Centres is a not-for-profit charitable company - Companies House Reg No 07822534; Charity Commission Reg No’s 1147449 & 1147449-1; OSCR Reg No’s: SC043396 & SC037949.
