A ‘lifeline’ service that helps people with mental health problems back into society could be axed with the loss of up to 20 jobs. Shropshire Council is currently carrying out a 90-day consultation on the future of its Social Inclusion and Recovery Service (SIRS).
Four staff who are based at Bridgnorth Hospital – two full-time and two part-time – could be lost if the council decides to end the service. Another 16 posts at Ludlow and Shrewsbury hospitals could go.
SIRS helps hundreds of people with mental health problems including anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and those affected by domestic violence, who are referred to the service by their GPs.
Sarah Johnston, from Broseley, who has been using the service for around two years, said SIRS had been her lifeline. “If it hadn’t been for SIRS I wouldn’t be here,” she said. “The team has helped me tremendously. The fact that it could soon be gone is upsetting and is putting me back into crisis.”
SIRS care co-ordinator Patrice Maiklem, who has 20 years experience as a mental health practitioner and has served 16 years at Bridgnorth Hospital, says she is devastated at the prospect of the service going.
“I have taken a lot of pride in my job and for the first time in my life I’m embarrassed because I can’t tell people that we will be here to help them in a few months,” she said.
“We specialise in social inclusion – if people need transport, housing, access to education, we help them sort it out, we support them. If SIRS goes, there just won’t be anything in Bridgnorth.
“Without proper services, people will be in a cycle of crisis and intervention with no rehabilitation to go to and that is dangerous. I was the voluntary leader of the Shropshire Mental Health Forum in Bridgnorth and when I think about the services we set up in the town that are now going to be lost, it’s outrageous and I’m gutted.”
Patrice said the prospect of losing the service was affecting its users as well as its staff. “This is putting people into crisis and relapse, it is making people ill,” she said.
“They will be told they can access voluntary services but they are miles away in Shrewsbury. Some people we see have difficulty going outside, let alone catching a bus all the way to Shrewsbury.”
Mike Green from Bridgnorth, who has been a service user for the last 10 years, said: “SIRS has been invaluable to me. They help to get people back into society – if the service suffers, its users will suffer.”