Medway Liberal Democrats to host Public Meetings to Reinstate a Mental Health Unit in Medway

As mental health week comes to a close, we would like to draw your attention to the shortfall in acute mental health care provision for the Medway and North Kent area. We will be holding public meetings to raise further awareness and discuss possible options with local people, the police and health care professionals.

The closure of the Mental Health Unit at Medway Maritime Hospital in December 2013 has seen the dispersal of acute mental health treatment services to other hospitals such as Darent Valley and QEQM in Margate. In an urban area of over 270,000 people, it is clearly unacceptable that Medway should be lacking a dedicated mental health facility.

It is estimated that around a third of police time is spent responding to incidents, where intervention from mental health professionals would be more appropriate and effective. Lacking a local specialist centre simply shifts the initial response to the police and other public services.

Many local people have been treated outside of the county. At a time when they need support of loved ones, it is not fair or reasonable for them to be treated far from home. We have received significant interest from the street stalls we held across the Towns over the last few months.

Paul Chaplin, lead campaigner, said "we have over 1,100 signatures on our petition. These signatures come from all over Medway and Kent and we believe this shows the case for reinstating a unit is overwhelming."

We are planning to hold two public meetings, to make sure than the public gets their voice heard on this subject. We will have speakers from Kent Police and Medway CCG present to respond to issues raised.

Please come along and let those directly involved in the providing services know your story.

The dates and venues of these meetings are as follows:

Saturday, 2nd June at 1:30pm