Mental Health Unit leads the way!

Stephen Metcalfe, Prospective Conservative Member of Parliament for South Basildon & East Thurrock today met with Anne Milton MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, Dr Patrick Geoghegan, chief executive of the South Essex Partnership NHS Trust (Sept), and Eunan MacIntyre, Director of Inpatient & Emergency Services and Mrs Lorraine Cabel, Chairman of South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to tour the recently opened facilities at the Basildon Hospital Mental Health Unit.

Anne Milton MP, a former nurse who has a background in caring for those with mental illness was impressed by the facilities and talked at length with Dr Geoghegan and Dr MacIntyre. The changes in procedure and treatment have enabled the centre to deliver better care, more quickly while reducing the need for patients to spend extended periods with the unit.
Dr Geoghegan has stated: “Mental illness is now the number one reason that people are off work - through anxiety, stress and depression where it used to be back pain. Yet the investment is not going into helping these people and supporting them."
He believes the recently opened facilities in Basildon and Rochford, and the imaginative approach adopted by the unit has seen real improvements in the way patients are cared for and has gone someway to compensate for that lack of investment.

Stephen Metcalfe said: “I too was very impressed with what has been achieved here in Basildon, the rapid response to patient needs and the desire to help those with mental illness back in to the community as quickly as appropriate has to be welcomed. There is a stigma surrounding mental illness and anything that can be done to break down that prejudice and help them back into the wider community is excellent.”

He continued: “This is often an area of healthcare that is overlooked, but can have devastating consequences on peoples lives. The approach adopted here allows for treatment at the same time as helping patients maintain connections with the wider community, it really has paid dividends. Working with patients as opposed to just for them has help people return home more quickly and often keep them in employment which can have so many positive benefits – long may their excellent work continue.”