Best For You, the innovative mental health programme for young people, has recently opened Arc – a new purpose-built space in north-west London.

Situated in SW10, Arc was made possible by generous donations and collaboration between CW+, CNWL Health Charity, and NHS England.

The project benefited from the expertise of CW+ in creating environments that encourage patient recovery and support staff in delivering the best possible care.

The CW+ Arts Team carried out consultations with young people to inform the design of the space, which has bespoke elements including feature lighting, comfortable furniture, and curated artwork to support young people’s recovery.

CW+ has a track record of supporting NHS organisations to work in partnership to share knowledge and best practice. Best For You is run in partnership by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, West London NHS Trust, and CW+. It is being evaluated by experts at Imperial College London.

In addition to Arc, the first of two state-of-the-art NHS spaces, Best For You provides a joined-up approach to mental health help for young people, with digital resources and community partnerships making it easier to access information and support from a trusted source.

Arc Day Programme

Arc is home to Arc Day Programme, a north-west London community-based service for young people with an eating disorder. The programme aims to reduce the number of young people who need to be admitted to an acute hospital or a Child and Adolescent Mental Health inpatient unit. It also provides step-down care to help young people leaving inpatient settings to successfully continue their recovery in the community.

Best For You and the North West London Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Provider Collaborative worked together to launch Arc Day Programme, which is clinically and operationally managed by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) as part of Best For You.

Young people and their family members or carers attend the programme for between three and six weeks. Compared to inpatient treatment, day-patient treatment has a reduced impact on young people’s everyday lives, including their education and their relationships with family and friends. By including family members and carers in the young person’s treatment, Arc Day Programme supports families to develop techniques and strategies to support each other as part of a unified approach to recovery.

Support CW+ and Best For You

Best For You has achieved a lot since 2021 as a ‘big and very complicated integrated care project that would not have been possible four or five years ago,’ says James Porter, Director of Campaigns and Major Programmes at CW+, ‘and that is 100% down to everyone involved in the programme.’

Best For You has around 75 flourishing community partnerships, including with YouTube, West London Zone (a charity supporting young people across most of north-west London’s state schools), Word on the Curb and football clubs across north-west London.

Since the start of 2022, there have been over 89,000 visitors to Best For You website, and its Instagram profile has reached 383,000 users. There have been also been almost 8,000 page views on the Best For You app library.

Best For You epitomises how CW+ combines expertise in partnership building, arts in health and healthcare innovation, as well as fundraising support, to transform and improve care for our Trust’s community of more than a million people and beyond.

This year, CW+ launched Thirty at Thirty, our most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, to mark the 30th birthday of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Over a three-year period, Thirty at Thirty aims to raise £30m to support Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the ongoing delivery of outstanding care to the communities it serves.

Find out more about Thirty at Thirty and how you can support the campaign.

Find out more about Best For You on the Best For You website.