Mental health partnership Hope Haven has opened its first short-stay flats in Whitehaven.
Hope Haven brings together local organisations to improve mental health and wellbeing across Copeland to provide services and support.
The newly opened short-stay flats will provide temporary respite for local people referred into the service, who need additional support but do not require longer term hospitalisation.
Four short-stay flats will be operated by Home Group, one of the partners of Hope Haven.
Partners of Hope Haven are Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust; Cumbria Health; Everyturn Mental Health; Home Group; iCan Wellbeing Group CIO and The WELL Communities CIC.
The project is one of six national pilot sites, funded by NHS England, focussed on providing more mental health and wellbeing support directly in local communities.
Partners from Hope Haven currently run a range of sessions around health, wellbeing, financial and housing support from the Senhouse Centre in Whitehaven, as well as at events and key community centres across Copeland.
One-to-one support is also available to people who need it, and a virtual safe haven, offering same-day online appointments with support workers launched last week.
Work is also well underway to deliver the new community wellbeing hub in the centre of Whitehaven, which will provide a permanent, drop-in base for local people to receive help and advice with around their health, wellbeing and issues impacting it.
James Varah, senior operations manager at Home Group, said: “We are delighted to be delivering this part of the Hope Haven project.
“Providing mental health and wellbeing support directly in our communities has the potential to make a major difference in the lives of local people, as well as engaging with people who otherwise might not receive the support they need.
“A lot of this support can be done through the sessions Hope Haven runs or face-to-face conversations, but it is vital we recognise that some people will require more intensive support or a space in which to stabilise.
“Having a space here in the community, which is a short-term step outside of needing hospitalisation, ensures we have more options available to provide people with the care and support their situation needs.”
Dr Rajesh Nadkarni, executive medical director and deputy chief executive at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, said: “When I visited the flats, it was a pleasure to hear the first impressions from local staff and people with lived experience of mental health challenges who had been invited to see them – we were all impressed by how warm, welcoming, and homely they are.
“Going into hospital can be very disruptive and difficult for some people when they need support with their mental health – but at the moment, in many places, there isn’t always a good, safe alternative.
“Working together with Home Group to offer this additional community support in Whitehaven will mean fewer people will need to be admitted to hospital, because we will be able to assess and support them quickly in their local area.”
The health trust is planning to close its mental health 16-bed in-patient facility, Yewdale Ward, at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, because it is no longer fit for purpose. The plans have attracted huge criticism.
Whitehaven & Workington MP Josh MacAlister has called for the decision to be reviewed.
