South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is a large and complex multi-site provider of mental health services – providing the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. We aim to make a difference to lives by seeking excellence in all areas of mental health and wellbeing.

We also provide substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Our 5,000 staff serve a local population of 1.3 million people. We offer more than 260 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. 

We provide care for 41,000 patients in the community in Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon.

As well as serving the communities of south London, we provide more than 20 specialist services for children and adults across the UK including perinatal services, eating disorders, psychosis and autism.

We are part of an academic health sciences centre called King's Health Partners  with King’s College London  (KCL), and Guy’s and St Thomas’  and King’s College Hospital NHS foundation trusts . Our aim is to be a leader in improving health and wellbeing – locally, nationally and globally.

We are the only mental health trust in the UK to have our own biomedical research centre (BRC)  – hosted jointly with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at KCL with the aim of translating scientific developments  into new ways of screening, detecting, treating and preventing mental illness.

Internationally we work with Macani Medical Centre an Abu Dhabi based organisation set up to bring the highest quality health care to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. You can find out more about the work we do by visiting the Maudsley Health website. 

Excellence in treatment, research  and training 

There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training:

• Service users benefit from the highest level of care

• Research teams explore new and better treatments

• In-house training facilities pass on the latest knowledge and skills to staff members

Close relationships between these three foundations makes sure that lessons learnt from patient contact and research can be translated into effective treatment, benefiting people locally, nationally and internationally.

Promoting mental health and wellbeing

We are increasingly focused on promoting mental health and wellbeing rather than simply responding to mental illness. Our philosophy of care is the recovery model. We provide treatment that helps people get well and stay well, so they can achieve their full potential. Above all, we believe change is possible, no matter how long someone has had a mental health problem, or how much this has changed their life.

Our integrated adult services make it possible for us to address both an individual’s mental health and social care needs. In particular, we are focusing more on early intervention: getting help to people sooner and supporting them at an earlier stage in their lives – especially younger people. Our work is about changing lives , not just for individuals, but in partnership with them.