Leicester: Concern over loss of mental health support centre

Katharine Ratcliffe and fellow centre user Rachel Tasker said alternatives were not suitable

A Leicester mental health support service is set to close at the end of the month, prompting fears from those who said they rely on it.

The Mett Centre is a day centre with activities including cooking, arts and crafts and health support.

Users said it offered a unique service and they were concerned losing it could lead to social isolation.

NHS officials said they would be supported during a move to a "wide-ranging community offer".

Those attending the Mett Centre said they have tried some of the alternatives and found them unsuitable to their particular needs.

Users said the staff at the Mett Centre were well-trained and caring

They added they had discussed the matter with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), including at an in-person meeting with the trust, but felt their views had been largely dismissed and ignored.

Rachel Tasker, who has autism and a number of other health concerns, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) there was "no other service that offers anything similar".

She said the only Leicester-based service for autism is on a Monday night, and described the Mett Centre as somewhere she can go with "no judgement".

She said: "I can have all my sensory stuff, you don't feel like a freak like you can do in public.

"I have a habit of making like random noises and things, and the looks you get in the streets… It's just like 'please leave me alone, just stop'. So it's a safe place."

'Fobbed off'

Ms Tasker has expressed concerns about the alternative provision not being suitable.

Fellow service user Katy Ratcliffe has echoed the concerns after visiting an art group at a different centre, and added: "We all have different health conditions, different boundaries, different triggers.

"We all walked out and two of us completely fell apart in the evening."

Ms Ratcliffe says the reality for her is the closure of the Mett Centre will lead to social isolation.

She said: "They closed it for lockdown in 2020 and we asked constantly for them to reopen it. They refused until March 2023.

"I didn't leave my house. I talked to my mum, my sister occasionally, and I just I sat at home watching TV and slept for 2.5 years until I got the call that said 'do you want to start back here?'"

Ms Ratcliffe said she felt like LPT was "fobbing them off" and it was like they were "patting them on the head and saying 'there, there'".

A spokesperson for LPT said they appreciated some people might be worried by the changes but these were the result of a public consultation in 2021, adding: "Communities told us they wanted care delivered closer to where people live.

"Over the last 12 months we've been supporting the small number of people still using the service, to transition to our new, wide-ranging community offer.

"This includes a mixture of neighbourhood mental health cafes, social and community mental health activities, and psychiatric medical or nursing support from our community mental health teams where it is part of a service users' on-going treatment plan."