Sunflower House is our tier four mental health inpatient unit. It is for children and young people aged 5 to 13 years old who have the most challenging mental health conditions.
The new building has 12 specially designed bedrooms and a family bedroom, providing a safe and high-quality space to stay. Also provided are a new therapy garden, a calming sensory room that can be used to prepare young people for outside life, an immersive room, a destimulation room, a safe kitchen environment to learn cooking and other life skills, group therapy rooms and classrooms. The £3m raised by our Charity’s 7 in 10 Appeal has helped to support the fit-out and furnishing of these crucial spaces.
About the team
We care for children on the unit when it may no longer be safe for them to be at home or if it’s not possible for community teams to complete an adequate assessment. On a day-to-day basis we offer a routine for the children, including attending an on-site school who liaise with the child’s own school to work at an appropriate level and gradually reintegrate.
Towards discharge, we work with families/carers to build on home leave and integration. The children can also have visitors on the unit of an evening time and weekends.
Animated case study
Sunflower House cares for children with challenging mental health difficulties. This can affect not only the child experiencing these difficulties but also their family and friends. Watch this real story from a mother of a young person who was treated at Dewi Jones (our previous tier four inpatient mental health facility) as told from her point of view.
The video is an animation and all names have been removed to protect their identities.
If you are struggling with mental health difficulties, please reach out. There is always help available. Contact our CAMHS Crisis team via the details on this page – CAMHS Crisis Care Team.
We also have a number of resources on our CAMHS website.
Take a virtual tour of Sunflower House
Meet the team
We have a large multi-disciplinary team who offer a range of therapeutic interventions for assessment and treatment.
- Consultant: Dr Andrew Kevern
- Psychologist: Elizabeth Rushbrooke
- Psychotherapist: Emma Higgs
- Clinical Lead: Andrea O’Donnell
- Modern Matron: Ben Smith
- Ward Manager: Jessica Macpherson
- Practice Educator: Tony Maguire
- Team Co-ordinators: Leigh Ann Lord, Megan Gouldbourne
- Nurses: Sarah Atkinson, Solange Kubaniro, Irene Kingshott, Naomi Mccoy
- Assistant Practitioners: Sophie Allan, Sophie Goodman, Janine Morton
- Senior Healthcare Workers: Amelia Williams, Emily Andrews, Emily Powner, Ellie Woods, Molly Maxwell, Ian Morton, Joan Cleave-Curtin, Kiera Kendall, Chloe Hargreaves, Sue McDonald, Steph Jamieson, Yvonne Lismore, Ciara Strawson.
Sophie shows Ali around Sunflower House
Contact us
You can call the Sunflower House team on 0151 228 4811, ext: 6200
We have recently relocated to our new Sunflower House building, based on the Alder Hey Children’s Healthcare Campus in West Derby, Liverpool. We are in the new building situated behind the Institute, simply follow the signs for ‘Catkin Centre and Sunflower House’. You can find more details directions in our Locations section.