Trust approves £21million unit for Children and Young People
Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s Board of Directors has approved plans for a new 24 bed unit for children and young people who need support for their mental health needs, as well as a specialist 8 bedded Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and an 8 bedded unit for mums who have serious mental health problems shortly before or after having a baby.
Planning permission is yet to be sought but the Trust has been engaged in pre planning process with the Local Authority and is confident that the benefits that the new unit will bring to Nottingham should make the proposals welcome. The new build will provide outpatient services too and will act as a child and family friendly campus for the County, with an education unit for young people who are away from their own schools.
The Trust has been working towards this development for some time and this approval is the beginning of an exciting and important development for young people and their families. Across the Country there is an alarming shortage of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) beds and this new build, on an existing Trust site on Mansfield Road in Nottingham, should remove the need for any young people to be treated out of area; something that is good for the young person and their family.
Ruth Hawkins is Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare:
“This is a fantastic development for young people and their families in Nottinghamshire and a huge investment in services for young people. We know that if we can intervene early with young people and their mental health issues then we can make a huge difference to people’s lives – which is a great outcome for them and for society as a whole.
“We look forward to getting the planning process underway and working with young people and their families in the design and furnishing of the new unit – with a proposed opening date of September 2017. This will be a real legacy project and local children, perinatal women and their families deserve nothing else.”
