Oxford Textbook of Inpatient Psychiatry

Section 1: the context of acute inpatient psychiatric care
1: Historical and conceptual aspects
2: Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act
3: International perspectives on inpatient mental health care
4: The design and function of inpatient wards
5: The context of inpatient mental health care in England

Section 2: team leadership and multidisciplinary work
6: Multidisciplinary work, multidisciplinary team
7: Modern matron, ward manager, consultant nurse
8: Occupational Therapy: values, evidence, interventions
9: The interface with community services

Section 3: medical aspects
10: Initial assessment, ward rounds, the discharge process
11: Physical health care
12: Adverse reactions to medication
13: People with personality disorders and developmental conditions
14: Electroconvulsive therapy
15: Prevention and management of violence
16: Assessment and management of vulnerable patients
17: Management of people with personality disorders and developmental conditions
18: Autoimmune related psychosis
19: Rehabilitation wards
20: Clinical pharmacy, safe prescribing, monitoring

Section 4: nursing aspects
21: Daily ward process in an inpatient mental health care
22: Nursing observations of patient on inpatient wards
23: Assessment and management of risk of suicide
24: Safe Wards Initiative
25: Serious incidents, post-incident debriefing, team support
26: Working with relatives and friends
27: Accreditation of Inpatient Mental Health Services

Section 5: psychological aspects
28: Psychological treatment in the acute ward
29: Interventions for specific conditions

Section 6: Diversity, advocacy, staffing issues
30: Diversity in inpatient care
31: Advocacy
32: Staff burnout and staff turnover on inpatient wards

Section 7: beyond adults of working age
33: Acute inpatient care in children and adolescents
34: Acute inpatient care in older adults
35: Psychiatric intensive care
36: Eating disorders

Inpatient mental health care is an essential part of community-based mental health care in the UK. Patients admitted to acute mental health wards are often experiencing high levels of distress and acute mental illness and need to be assessed, managed, and treated by a wide team of mental health care professionals. Inpatient care is often a traumatic experience for patients and their relatives which can define their relationship with mental health care services. Reforming inpatient psychiatry is a priority for both patients and staff, yet there are few reference texts on this psychiatric specialty. 

The Oxford Textbook of Inpatient Psychiatry bridges this gap by offering a comprehensive and pragmatic guide to the UK's inpatient mental health care system today. Written and edited by a multidisciplinary team, this innovative resource discusses the real-life experiences and challenges of a wide range of professionals working on acute mental health wards. Organized into 8 sections this resource covers nursing, team leadership, multidisciplinary work, psychology, and medical aspects. Individual chapters address key topics such as the management of children and adolescents, and contain information on up-to-date research and best practice. 

• Focusing on the dignity and autonomy of patients, this unique resource offers a model for clinical and organizational practice both at a national and international level.
• The most comprehensive review of inpatient psychiatry in the UK ever published.
• Focusing on the multidisciplinary nature of inpatient psychiatry, this resource provides implementable information for all mental health care professionals.
• Provides a framework for improved inpatient psychiatric care that is focused on dignity and autonomy of patients.
• Split into eight sections, clinicians can easily locate areas of specific interest, such as eating disorders, advocacy, or pharmacology.
• Covers innovative topics such as advocacy, diversity, quality improvement, and staff burnout.

Edited by Alvaro Barrera, Consultant Psychiatrist, Warneford Hospital, Oxford and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Oxford, UK, Caroline Attard, Consultant Nurse and Head of Quality improvement programme, , Berkshire Health Care Foundation Trust, UK, and Rob Chaplin, Clinical Lead for Accreditation at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre for Quality Improvement, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, UK 

Alvaro Barrera is a Consultant Psychiatrist, at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He completed a MSc in neurobiology and behavioural science and subsequently completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he also trained in neuropsychiatry. His research interests comprise transforming inpatient care using digital technology and organisational approaches, the psychopathology and cognitive neuroscience of severe mental illness, as well as empathy in clinical psychiatry.

Caroline Attard is currently the Director of Quality Improvement working in Berkshire Health Foundation Trust in the UK. Her career and expertise spans over 20 years working in her native country Malta and in the United Kingdom. She specialises in in-patient mental health nursing and Quality Improvement. She has worked as an in-patient mental health Nurse Consultant which consisted of education, clinical leadership, research and service improvement. Caroline has taught on under and post graduate level mental health nursing programmes at various universities. She has also developed and facilitated various in-house training programmes on a variety of subjects including suicide prevention, risk training and psycho social interventions. She has developed a preceptorship programme for newly qualified mental health. nurses which focuses on resilience and uses methods such as action learning sets and quality improvement methodology.

Rob Chaplin has recently retired from the National Health Service where he worked in an inpatient and formerly community mental health care as a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry. He is currently working as Clinical Lead for Accreditation at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre for Quality Improvement. He worked in Oxford, UK for the last 16 years at the Warneford and Littlemore Hospitals and has co authored more than 60 peer reviewed publications in the field of mental health service research. He has trained doctors at all stages of psychiatric training.