Colleagues in Cheltenham’s mental health services celebrated on Wednesday (Nov 15) to mark the official opening of additional clinic space in the town.
Our Mental Health Intermediate Care Team (MHICT) now has an additional eight clinic rooms on the top floor at St Paul’s Medical Centre team.
And they’ve seen more than 2,200 service users in the new clinic space since it became available in August.
There was a day of entertaining team-building mixed with stories about patient experiences and a visit from the leadership team, including Chief Operating Office David Noyes, non-executive director Jan Marriott, and governor Lisa Crooks, to mark the official opening.
Zoe Hepburn, Clinical Lead for NHS Talking Therapies in the MHICT at Cheltenham, said: “Space has really been at a premium for our teams, and it’s been a struggle moving between rented rooms that we might only have for an hour or two.
“Now a therapist can have a room booked to them all day, they can stay in one place and have much more control of their diary.
“For our service users it gives them a beautiful space to welcome them into – colleagues and service users both say they feel really valued to come here.”
The MHICT has Psychological Wellbeing Practioners, Mental Health Nurses and High Intensity Therapists working together with their administrative support.
They provide care for a high volume of people, with more than 25,000 referrals across the county each year.
Chief Operating Office David Noyes told the team: “You are at the centre of the community and at the heart of what we do, so to give you a facility like this hugely important.
“The care you provide is doing what really matters, which is to help people every day.
“Enjoy this new space – I hope it provides everything you wanted.”
There were thanks as well for the Trust’s Estates Team, and in particular Joy Turk, Gavin Rowcraft and Jane Shaw, for their work to create the clinic.
