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£32m mental health hospital for Belfast announced, as experts debate patients’ rights at Queen’s University conference (18 September 2014)

Date: 18/09/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, £32m mental health hospital for Belfast announced, as experts debate patients’ rights at Queen’s University conference

A new mental health unit is to be built in Belfast, which is due to open by June 2017.

BBC News reports that the £32 million mental health facility will be built on the site of an existing vacant hospital – Belfast City Hospital – which will be
demolished.

The new mental health facility will centralise acute mental health inpatient beds for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust – and provide 74 acute care mental health beds, as well as a six-bed psychiatric unit.

Northern Ireland Health Minister Edward Poots said:

"This new state of the art facility, when complete, will make a real and lasting difference to the lives of many patients and families across Northern Ireland.

"One in four people in Northern Ireland will experience some form of mental ill-health in their lives – and more needs to be done to tackle the issue.

"This new facility will help provide much more support, better services and treatment – services that are more effective and more humane, treatments that help them avoid chronic disability and premature death; and support that gives them a life that is healthier and richer – a life lived with dignity," Mr Poots said.

The announcement coincides with new legislation in Northern Ireland to end the stigma of mental health conditions.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that Queen’s University Belfast is currently hosting the four-day World Congress on Mental Health and Deafness, where Professor Roy McClelland of Queen’s is due to address delegates on Northern Ireland's new Mental Capacity Bill and the rights of deaf people to equality in mental health care.

The Bill is the first in the world to give patients equal decision-making rights about their treatment, whether they have a mental health condition or not.

The Bill will have its first reading in the Northern Ireland Assembly early in 2015.

Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is the UK’s largest provider of Legal Aid mental health services in England and Wales – and can advise mental health patients on access to services, as well as detention under the Mental Health Act.

Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors are available at short notice to advise on mental health law at mental health hospitals and police stations nationwide.

For expert legal advice on mental health care, call the Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors’ Helpline on 0203 114 1124.

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