Rishi Sunak has praised the work of the mental health and learning disability teams in Northallerton after visiting their new £5.5m base.
North Moor House opened last year and brings together a number of mental health and learning disability services under one roof for the first time.
The community mental health hub – a 2,500 square metre building over three floors – has been built for the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust as part of the North Northallerton development.
It brings together mental health and learning disability services from the Friarage Hospital, Brompton House and Gibraltar House.
The teams based there serve northern North Yorkshire, including Richmondshire.
The new building was designed with input from service users and carers to make sure that it met the needs of the local population with welcoming entrance and reception areas and light and airy consulting rooms.
Mr Sunak, MP for Richmond (Yorks), said: “I know many local people were concerned about the local changes to mental health services a few years ago but this is a superb new facility for staff and patients.
“It provides a great base for the mental health teams to work from providing a service in the community where the vast majority of patients want to receive their treatment and therapies. It also provides modern outpatient facilities for local people of all ages.
“It was great to meet the teams based at North Moor. They are clearly enjoying working in their new surroundings with improved facilities for both staff and patients.
During his visit, Mr Sunak met staff from the adult community mental health team and crisis team.
He also spoke to staff running the centre’s memory clinic. Other teams based at North Moor include the community teams for older people, children and young people services and the community learning disabilities team.
Brent Kilmurray, chief executive at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, said: “North Moor House is a huge step forward for mental health services in the area.
“It’s a modern, welcoming hub, providing outpatient facilities for people of all ages in the local community who need to access mental health and learning disability services.
“For many years our services were spread across Northallerton in a number of buildings. The hub brings all of our community and out-patient services together under one roof, enabling us to provide and support teams to work more closely with one another.
“This has been hugely beneficial for our community as well as our staff, allowing for safe and easy transfers of care, such as the transition from children’s to adults services.”
“We were delighted that Rishi had the opportunity to see the transformation in our community services first-hand and to meet some of our fantastic colleagues.”
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