What next for mental health Admissions

According to the Haringey independent NHS. bosses met on Thursday 1.12.2011 and planned to withdraw funding for the Alexandra Road centre.  This leaves the council who manage the day to day running of the centre no choice but to close it down. As most people are aware plans are in the pipeline to close the remaining wards at St, Ann’s and the idea being to open “new recovery units” in the borough which according to Haringey NHS. will better the needs of patients as the units will be more local? They add that recovery units in Barnet and Enfield will be available for Haringey residents. This means if it is decided you need a bed in a recovery unit and not in Chase Farm hospital you are not guaranteed a place in the “new Haringey recovery units”

Those patients who need acute care will in the future have to go to Chase Farm Hospital Enfield. This undermines the argument put forward by Haringey mental health trust that its actions are in the best interests of patients. Surely patients who are in a more severe i.e., acute condition need more they anyone the support of family and friends. Moving to chase farm will not facilitate this taking into consideration the cost, and the time it will take to get there, a journey of at least seven miles from the centre of Haringey and not serviced by an underground station.

The closure of Alexandra road and the proposed closure of St Ann’s leave people in the mental health system no idea what the future holds. This along with other developments such as the cutbacks in funding for day centres like the Clarendon gives the impression the council and the mental health services in Haringey have launched an aggressive policy against one of the most vulnerable groups in the community who are in no position to fight back. Major cutbacks in the area of mental health are a soft option and an example of the onward march of a more inhumane society.  Michael