Parklands Hospital continues to give support to soldiers (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Parklands Hospital continues to give support to soldiers
1:30pm Wednesday 9th January 2013 in Local By Helen Morton
Lieutenant Colonel Pete McAllister, head of Army Psychiatry, with Pual Warren, when the contract was first awarded to Parklands Hospital in 2009
PARKLANDS Hospital in Basingstoke is to continue providing mental health services to soldiers suffering from mental illness.
The national contract to provide acute mental health inpatient services for serving military personnel has been awarded to the Joining Forces Network, which includes Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, in Hampshire.
Southern Health’s specialist mental health unit, based at Parklands Hospital, in Aldermaston Road, provides six beds for soldiers with a severe mental illness, and complements the armed forces’ own community mental health services in the area.
In some cases, frontline soldiers have been taken straight to the unit in Basingstoke as soon as they have returned to the UK, still wearing combat fatigues.
The new contract will include innovations such as a mental health ‘app’ specially developed to offer mental health information to personnel from the army, navy and air force, which will be rolled out shortly.
The Joining Forces Network, a partnership of eight NHS mental health trusts, first secured the contract in 2009.
Dr Paul Warren, consultant psychiatrist and clinical service director at Parklands Hospital, said: “The re-awarding of this contract is a reflection of the high-quality support that staff in the unit have been providing.
“We’re delighted to be able to continue offering this highly specialised service to armed forces personnel in the region, and returning from conflict zones worldwide.”
