A Liverpool alcohol detoxification service, has been rated outstanding by the CQC, following an inspection in November and December.
CQC carried out this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ to test the reliability of our monitoring approach.
Transforming Choice provides alcohol detoxification through a regime of reducing dosages of alcohol. The 12-week rehabilitation programme focuses on building coping strategies, life skills, and reintegrating people into the community.
The service also provides an aftercare service to support people who have been discharged from the residential programme.
Following this CQC inspection, the service has improved from good to outstanding overall and for being caring and responsive. It remains rated as good for being safe, effective and well-led. Brian Cranna, CQC’s head of hospital inspection (mental health and community health services), said:
“When we inspected Transforming Choice, we found an outstanding service, providing excellent person-centred care, and staff going the extra mile to meet people’s needs during and after a 12-week rehabilitation programme.
“During our visit, people told us they’d been homeless before coming to Transforming Choice, and had used many other services, but this was the best place, it had given them hope and support to change their life around.
“We found the service had enough staff who were highly motivated and inspired to provide outstanding care and promote people’s dignity. During our inspection, we consistently saw positive interactions, and staff were always being polite and respectful to people using the service.
“Additionally, it was good to see that managers made sure staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Also, we found staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding to keep people safe.
“The service had good relationships with partner organisations to support people with their physical and mental health. People could choose activities in the community, including swimming, going to the gym, or a café. People can also continue these activities after they leave the service to support their recovery in the longer term.
“Staff at Transforming Choice have worked hard to achieve this rating and I would like to congratulate them all for their dedication and commitment to supporting people to change their lives for the better.”
CQC found the following outstanding practice:
- The chef proactively adapted the meals to ensure they were nutritious and included foods rich in key vitamins and minerals which people would be lacking due to their longstanding high alcohol use
- The culture was truly person centred and many felt that Transforming Choice was the best place which gave them hope, empowered them to address their addiction properly and provided support to change their life
- Everyone had truly worked together to develop the “i-choose” programme which was a range of holistic aftercare activities and workshops to build resilience, self-determination, friendships and connections among people who were overcoming addictions to alcohol
- The service had invested in exercise equipment to enable people to build their strength, confidence, and aid physical recovery
- The service designed bespoke individualised programmes of rehabilitation for people who had alcohol related brain injury with associated cognitive impairment which was designed to develop their strengths.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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