Jillian Torrens, services director for Royal Edinburgh Hospital and associated services in NHS Lothian, said: “Mental health is complex and can at times present very specific challenges.
“We work closely with young people to understand their needs, manage risk and recovery and always take prompt action to support anyone affected by challenging behaviour by providing additional care, separate safe spaces, increased staffing, one-to-one and enhanced nursing support and regular care reviews.
“We will continue to strengthen our safeguarding processes and keep patients and families informed as we work through our focused improvement plan.”
Unannounced inspections of Scotland’s three adolescent mental health inpatient units were ordered by ministers in 2025 after BBC Scotland’s Disclosure programme uncovered allegations of a “culture of cruelty” at Skye House, the young people’s inpatient facility in Glasgow.
A joint inspection of Skye House by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission published in February continued to find “significant concerns” over the treatment of patients.
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde said it had made significant improvements but admitted more needed to be done.
Claire Lamza, the commission’s executive director of nursing told Radio Scotland Breakfast, the Melville Unit can be a very complex and challenging environment at times where staff have to manage young people who have a variety of different needs.
Lamza said the report highlights improvements in the report from a number of areas in the unit but said there is still more work to do.
She said: “The staff never quite know who is coming through the door so some of the challenges include when a young person comes in who is very unwell, and quite hostile and aggressive, the staff have to change their approach with different presentations.
“There were a lot of really positive things we heard from the staff, from the records we could see a mapped reduction in the number of restraints that had taken place.
“The care planning and information in the risk assessments around the process of restraints were all far improved from what we saw last year.
“There is more work to be done involving the carers, by being in discussion with the multi-disciplinary team and by being involved in giving information on what worked best for their child.”