Green Light For £7m Mental Health Unit
A £7million 24-bed unit for young people with mental health problems has been approved for Glasgow. The facility will be known as Skye House and will be built on the new Stobhill Hospital site. Glasgow City Council gave the green light to the plans and the unit will replace and expand NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s existing temporary in-patient service for young people at Gartnavel Royal Hospital, which has accommodation for 16 young people.
Building work is due to start in the next few weeks and is expected to be completed by summer 2008.
Treatment at Skye House will be for people aged 12-17 from across the west of Scotland who are suffering from conditions such as severe depression, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders.
The Stobhill unit includes individual bedrooms, separate areas to treat young people of different ages and with different medical conditions, improved educational and therapy space and better facilities for carers and relatives.
It will have three buildings; ward accommodation, treatment space and a third purpose-built space for the provision of education.
Mary Hattie, manager for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Adolescent Mental Health Services, said: “The young people who use the current service at Gartnavel have been closely involved at all stages of the planning process. We took note of everything they suggested; even the name was chosen in consultation with the young people. They also wanted to make sure the facility was as bright and cheerful as possible, with lots of natural light and space.”
Among the suggestions included in the design were increased privacy for individual patients; en-suite bathrooms and improved facilities for recreation.
Around 30 young people coping with a variety of different conditions are admitted each year to the existing young people’s mental health ward at Gartnavel.
Therapy is offered to individuals and their families and the Skye House facility will offer an overnight room for families visiting from outlying areas.
