A sanctuary for people experiencing severe emotional distress has been funded by Bristol clinical commissioning group (CCG).
Local service users and carers helped draw up the plans for the £200,000 per year service, in the hopes of preventing people from going on to mental health crisis.
Bristol Sanctuary will be a “homely, comfortable and welcoming” place where people can go outside of normal working hours.
A sanctuary for people experiencing severe emotional distress has been funded by Bristol clinical commissioning group (CCG).
Local service users and carers helped draw up the plans for the £200,000 per year service, in the hopes of preventing people from going on to mental health crisis.
Bristol Sanctuary will be a “homely, comfortable and welcoming” place where people can go outside of normal working hours.
People can choose whether to use the quiet spaces, get one to one support from a support worker, take part in complementary therapies, cook and share good or find out about other services available.
It will also link to other mental health services in the area, if needed.
The service will be open from Friday-Monday nights, from 7pm to 2am.
St Mungos’ Broadway was awarded the contract following a formal tendering process. The service will be open from April 2015.
Jill Shepherd, chief officer of Bristol CCG said: “The idea for the service came from service users and carers during our extensive consultation on improving local mental health services – and shows the influence that the public and patients can have on designing local health services. It will be a safe place for people experiencing emotional distress that will be open four nights a week until 2 am.
“We hope it will prevent some people going on to experience a mental health crisis. It will also be a relaxing space that can be used by carers or those in a relationship with someone in a mental health crisis.”
