Teen's mental health unit permanently closed

Wessex House provided residential mental health treatment for teenagers from Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire

The only remaining adolescent psychiatric unit in the West for teenagers with serious mental health difficulties has closed permanently.

Wessex House in Bridgwater provided residential mental health treatment for 13-18-year-olds from Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire before it closed temporarily in September 2024 due to a lack of staff.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has said it will not reopen the unit. The nearest similar facilities are in Devon and Dorset.

The trust said admissions to Wessex House had fallen following investment in community care, adding the "vast majority" of young people in Somerset received support outside of hospital.

John Powell's 20-year-old daughter Jessica Powell died while trying to abscond from a psychiatric ward at Summerlands Hospital, in Yeovil, in 2020.

He warned the closure of Wessex House will mean patients have to be treated far away from their families.

Mr Powell, from Yeovil, said: "We need somewhere local, definitely. But the problem that we found at the time was either there wasn't enough staff, or there wasn't enough trained staff."

Jessica Powell, pictured with her father John Powell, died while trying to abscond from a psychiatric ward in Somerset in 2020

The NHS says hospital admissions should be avoided where possible as outcomes are better when children and young people with mental health conditions are supported in the community.

But Mr Powell said in his experience it was not always possible to get crisis care in the community and his daughter was admitted to hospital a number of times over a two-year period.

"Our first point of call, most of the time, [was] the police," he said.

"And then you had to get your daughter dragged out of the house in handcuffs... because there was nowhere else for her to go."

The unit where Miss Powell died was run by Somerset Partnership NHS Trust at the time but has since been taken over by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust previously apologised for the failures which led to Miss Powell's death and a spokesperson said its crisis team is now rated as outstanding by the health watchdog.

A spokesperson for the trust said Wessex House's closure comes after significant investment in seven-day community and school-based services.

They said the use of the unit's beds had fallen to about one child from Somerset per month and said fewer than six of the unit's 12 beds were occupied when it closed.

"Much of this is due to the investment and developments in our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) urgent care pathway, where the vast majority of young people in Somerset receive intensive support in their own homes and communities," the spokesperson added.

They said Somerset Camhs has close links with hospitals in Plymouth and Portsmouth where inpatient beds will remain available for young people from the West who need them.

So far this year, one young person from Somerset has been admitted to hospital in Devon with wraparound support from their local team, according to the trust.

The only other similar facility nearby - Riverside Adolescent Unit at Blackberry Hill Hospital in Frenchay, near Bristol - also remains closed after the death of 17-year-old Lucy Curtis in January 2024. An inquest into Lucy's death is due to take place in June 2026.

The closure of adolescent mental health facilities in the West means young people are now being cared for in non-specialist children's wards.

This led to safety concerns from staff at Great Western Hospital in Swindon after a spate of attacks on nurses on its paediatric unit. The hospital said the ward was often "the only place available locally" for vulnerable young people with complex mental health needs.

In a joint statement, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership and the South West Provider Collaborative said they remained committed to providing an inpatient service in Bristol and were exploring options to do it safely and effectively.

"In the meantime, we continue to support young people who need Camhs support either through our community teams or through admission to an alternative inpatient unit as close to home as possible," the statement added.

Wessex House staff have been temporarily re-deployed with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust working to find them permanent positions elsewhere, the spokesperson added.

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