A new mental health outpatients’ unit for young people in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is due to open in the next few weeks.
Westcotes Lodge, near Narborough Road, has been converted from offices to create seven new clinical spaces to see young people for assessment and treatment of their mental health.
These will be used by a range of clinicians to work with young people aged up to 18.
The lodge, a Grade II listed building, was previously leased to the University of Leicester. It has been turned into the treatment complex by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).
Steph Buswell is a family service manager of LPT’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
She said: “For us to have more space to see young people is going to be absolutely fabulous.
“We’ve worked very hard at designing this building and hope that young people and families accessing these rooms find them comfortable and supportive of their mental health recovery.”
Steph Buswell said that since the peak of the pandemic, referrals to the CAMHS service had increased by 67 per cent. The service had introduced phone and video appointments to help deal with this increase, however many young people benefit from being seen in person. The new rooms create capacity for an extra 210 face-to-face appointments a week.
Westcotes Lodge sits in the grounds of another CAMHS outpatient facility, Westcotes House.
To see the centre for yourself, watch this video: https://youtu.be/27-H9JSLWjo .