11 Apr 2010

Christchurch mental health facility to close

2:31 pm on 11 April 2010

Trustees of a specialist womens' mental health unit in Christchurch say funding shortfalls and a change in the unit's role mean it must close permanently at the end of next month.

Newell House opened in 1995, and is overseen by trustees from the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church.

The five-bed unit offers respite care for mentally ill women and their children.

Canterbury District Health Board provides about two-thirds of the $220,000 budget.

The trustees are closing the home at the end of May, as they say top-up funding has become too hard to find and an audit has found the unit no longer meets objectives set out by the church in 1995.

Newell House Trust chairman Mike Crudge says the unit has moved beyond its initial mandate as a halfway house to become a professional mental health service provider, making it difficult for the church to have an ongoing connection with it.

"People having anything to do with the house need to be professionals in the mental health field and most people in our church are not trained in that area."

DHB planning and funding manager Carolyn Gullery, says the board is surprised and disappointed, as the service was used extensively, and its management had not signalled funding problems.

Ms Gullery says she's confident of finding a replacement organisation to fill the gap before Newell House closes on 28 May.