New mental health Urgent Care Centre is opened
A new and modernised mental health Urgent Care Centre in the city has been officially opened thanks to a partnership between our 0-25s Mental Health Service, Forward Thinking Birmingham (FTB), and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation.
The improvement is part of a greater integration of services to improve access for patients to urgent mental health assessment at the facility located at The Oleaster on the medical campus in Edgbaston.
It will provide a therapeutic environment for adults, young people and children in the purpose building that has been future-proofed to meet changing demand.
The link-up between FTB and BSMHFT is part of on-going work aimed at making things better as part of a long-term vision of an integrated crisis service offer.
Alex Borg, Executive Director of Mental Health Services at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are thrilled to see the official opening of the Oleaster Urgent Care Centre. The £1million investment has created a purpose-built facility that will be one of the first ‘all-age’ centres for mental health urgent care and is the first step in true partnership working across our mental health care system.
“Following consultation, careful planning with young people and a lot of hard work, we will be providing the new PDU (Psychiatric Decisions Unit). This will aid crisis and urgent assessments for young people under 18 and is part of the on-going investment in mental health services by Birmingham and Solihull in relation to children and young people's crisis care.”
Speaking at the official opening, Paula Lloyd Knight, Associate Director of Operations, (Acute and Urgent Care) at BSMHFT, said: “Today marks a really important day whereby the two organisations will be able to provide high quality services to both children and adults in crisis.
“This wonderful purpose-built building will change the way we support people and takes us a step closer to realising our vision of a transform crisis offer for people across Birmingham and Solihull.”