I SEE that the mental health services in Bolton have just been given £3m on top of the £14m a year they already get.

It sounds a great idea on paper, but in practice it will not work as most of the doctors in Bolton are very unsympathetic to the mental health sub culture.

This money will be used by private companies that the patient is referred to by their GP, the private company will do their standard tick box procedure and then the patient will be referred to a psychiatrist who will then assess the patient and prescribe medication and talking therapy.

All of this will have a time line of 6-12 months, in the mean time the patient is suffering, could slip in to self medication (drugs/alcohol) and is off work.

This money needs to be spent on a separate specialist mental health centre, with nurses/doctors and in-house talking therapy, this will take the burden off GPs and speed up the recovery time of a mental ill health suffer, getting them into work for the first time in years and in other cases back to work quicker thus they will be paying taxes and being productive and is good for their mental health.

Don't forget Bolton has one of the biggest percentages of mental ill health suffers at 21% with the national average being 18%.

The lack of good quality social housing in the town is a factor to this percentage, along with no work etc and no focus in life, this needs to change. This specialist centre would transform the sub-culture mental ill suffer, along with professionals it could have mentors who are recovering from mental ill health but strong enough to give back and support other suffers.This would be a win win for the GPs, the local economy, the spirit of the town, cut down on anti social,criminal behaviour such as drug taking, dealing and crime in general.

Frank Craig Webb

Bolton