St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, England is a psychiatric hospital run by a non-profit-making, charitable trust. It is by far the largest mental health facility in UK, providing national specialist services for adolescents, men, women and older people with mental illness, learning disability, brain injury, autism and dementia (patients suffering from Brain Injury, severe Autism or Dementia are treated in dedicated units due to their specialised care needs). The organisation only caters for Patients requiring Low to Medium-secure accommodation and has a primary focus on rehabilitation, as opposed to psychopharmacology, as a means of treating Mental Illness and easing psychological suffering. The charity also has hospitals in Essex and Birmingham, and opened a new unit in Nottinghamshire in 2010.
As of 2010, the organisation employs over 3,000 people across the United Kingdom and receives over 95% of its revenue (and patients) from the UK's National Health Service through referrals from NHS Commissioners.
St Andrew's has the capacity to cater for around 600 patients across its various sites, but is in a period of rapid expansion and this capacity is likely to increase dramatically over the next few years.
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The Northamptonshire County General Lunatic Asylum, founded by public subscription, opened to "private and pauper lunatics" on 1 August 1838.
The hospital was built on land once owned by the Cluniac Priory of St Andrew's. Donations were given for the establishment of a building for the "care of the insane" including from the funds of the disbanded Northamptonshire Yeomanry and a gift from the second Earl Spencer.
Thomas Octavius Prichard was appointed as the hospital’s first medical superintendent: he was one of the pioneers of "moral management", the humane treatment of the mentally ill. The asylum was originally intended to house 70 patients, "private and pauper", and was made a charitable trust. By the mid 1840s St Andrew's was caring for over 260 people; by 1860 this had risen to 317 and five years later to 414; in 1869 there were 40 nurses and attendants caring for 450 patients.
In 1876, a separate County Asylum for pauper patients was opened and the original County General Lunatic Asylum changed its name to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum for the Middle and Upper Classes. The asylum was renamed St Andrew's Hospital in 1887.
At the foundation of the National Health Service, St Andrew's sought exemption and was one of four Registered Hospitals allowed to function outside the NHS, maintaining its charitable status.
Many of the hospital buildings enjoy Listed Building status including the Hospital Chapel which was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1863.
St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton: The First One Hundred and Fifty Years, 1838-1988 Foss, Arthur & Trick, Kerith (Granta 1989)