The development of the pod, external and training for staff was funded by Toucan, external, a West Midlands Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services provider.
Liz Mellor, chief strategy officer at Combined Healthcare, said it would enable the trust to deliver “the best quality care for young people when they need it the most”.
Service manager Glynis Harford, explained the young patients at the Darwin Centre, who are aged between 12 and 18, sometimes needed “high-intensity, short-term” care or support to move through “distressing emotions”.
“The suite will form a core part of the ward, acting as a flexible space that we can quickly and easily reconfigure as a safe space to deliver more intensive support where required,” she said.
Other improvements recently made at the Darwin Centre included the addition of a dietician, an art therapist and upgraded sensory equipment, the trust added.