At South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust we provide the widest range of services in the United Kingdom (UK) for people with mental health problems or an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

We provide care and treatment for children, adults and older people living in south London, and specialist services, for people from across the country. Our services include a wide range of hospital and community based services.

History

Our history dates back to the foundation of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in 1247, the oldest psychiatric institution in the world.

Our objectives

Our aim is to treat mental illness effectively, work in partnership to promote mental well-being, and support others by sharing our clinical expertise and knowledge.

Our core value

Everything we do is to improve the experience of people using our services, and to promote mental health and well-being for all.

What we do

We provide a full range of mental health services for people of all ages, from over 100 community-based sites across south London, three psychiatric hospitals, and specialist units located across the hospital sites. We provide mental health and social care services in partnership with local authorities. Every year, around 5,000 people receive inpatient hospital treatment and 32,000 people receive care and treatment from our services.

The local area we serve

We provide mental health and substance misuse services for people living in the London Boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, and substance misuse services for people who live in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

Our local communities have very high levels of mental health needs – up to six times the national rate of psychosis in some areas. There are also high levels of social deprivation and substance misuse, and an ever-changing population, including high numbers of refugees.

Research

Our unique clinical and academic partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, means that research can directly benefit treatment locally, throughout the UK and internationally. Together, we host the UK’s only specialist National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for mental health.

Education and training

We provide an extensive range of learning opportunities, delivered in part from three hospital based training centres. We are responsible for delivering 14,000 training experiences a year, including e-learning, study days and workshops. We are a leader in the field of involving service users in the provision of education and training, and provide the most comprehensive mental health NHS library in London.

Specialist expertise

Our relationship with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, means we have been able to develop pioneering, specialist treatments in areas such as eating disorders, self-harm, traumatic stress and behavioural disorders.

Drug and alcohol problems

We run the National Addiction Centre (NAC), in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Over the last 40 years, the NAC’s research has informed the development of new treatment services for alcohol, smoking and drug problems in the UK. This work ranges from trials of new therapies and preventative treatments, to studies seeking to understand the genetic and biological basis of addictive behaviour.

Help for all ages

We have the largest child and adolescent mental health service in the country. At any point in time over 6,000 children and young people are in contact with our services, of which over 900 are in contact with our national and specialist service.

At the other end of the age spectrum, we provide clinical services to 130,000 older people across four London boroughs. Our work in this area includes more effective assessment, diagnosis and treatment for people with dementia, an illness which costs the UK £17 billion every year – more than heart disease, stroke and cancer combined

For more information visit the South London and Maudsley website http://www.slam.nhs.uk/