Outcry as mental health charity budget slashed 80 per cent

Facing an 80 per cent budget cut are, from left, Mind chairman Bob Mercer, carer Julia Chandler and Theresa Ibbotson, family support worker

MENTAL health charity Mind is being forced to axe vital work in Oldham after a devastating blow which will see it lose 80 per cent of its budget.

The charity’s £260,000 annual handout from NHS Oldham and Oldham Council has been slashed to £50,000.

And 500 local people who get help from Mind are being sent letters telling them services are no longer available.

Two advocacy workers, a family and carer support worker and a community engagement worker, half of Mind’s Oldham staff, have been issued with redundancy letters taking effect from December 22.

NHS Oldham insists support is available from other bodies, and it just can’t afford to pay for duplicated services.

The cuts leave the charity unable to do anything but the statutory minimum of providing advocacy for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.

It will affect Failsworth mother-of-two Joanne Howarth, a carer for her 39-year-old husband for 12 years.

She said the pressure of looking after him and their two children, aged 12 and three, pushed her to the limit, and she was only saved by her family support worker, Theresa Ibbotson: “Without her I would have broken down. The service is not only needed, but essential.”

Another carer, Julia Chandler, added: “I am appalled. Oldham is a town most probably in need of services and the way things are going will need them even more.

“From personal experience, because I have had to use their services for complex family matters, they are the only people who were informative and friendly. It has been a battle getting assistance and I know many others who have had the same problem.

“I wonder where the common sense has gone these days when there has been so much wastage in other directions?”

Brian Timmins, who has used its advocacy service, said: “I don’t know what state I would have been without them. I’m sorry it has had to come to this.”

The bombshell has left the charity’s staff and its army of volunteers reeling in shock.

Chairman of Tameside, Oldham and Glossop Mind, Bob Mercer, said the cuts applied only to Oldham - it has separate contracts with primary care trusts in Tameside and Glossop.

He described it as a “short sighted, knee jerk reaction” to the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, and warned the vulnerable will suffer.

He said: “It’s terrible news and bitterly disappointing. We are dumbfounded at the size of the cut, we won’t be able to provide any community advocacy, support for carers or community engagement.

“We will more or less have to stop everything we do.”

Mr Mercer, a former senior manager in the mental health field, will continue as voluntary chairman.

Mind was first contracted to provide services in Oldham in 2007. Mr Mercer said it had been praised for “excellent work, professionalism and enthusiasm.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Oldham said: “Ensuring there is support for some of the most vulnerable members of our community with mental health issues is absolutely a priority for us.

“We give our commitment that the people who benefited from services provided by Mind will still have the support they need.

“It is because this support is available elsewhere in Oldham, because the contract with Mind came to an end some months ago and because of the outcome of a detailed performance review, that we took the difficult decision not to renew it.

“ The current financial challenge we face means we simply can’t afford to pay many different organisations to provide the same or similar services.”