Last Friday afternoon, we received a call from Ventnor East county councillor Chris Welsford, enthusiastically raving about an open day that he’d just been to at Church View in Ventnor.
Chris was so impressed with the service being offered at the day centre, he suggested we pop down and see for ourselves.
The open day had been organised by the users of the centre, which offers a welcoming and safe place for people with mental health issues to attend on a daily basis.
Users of the centre can take advantage of all manner of activities from creative writing to art classes and it also provides a place for users to meet with community psychiatric nurses.
Vital service for so many
We missed the big buzz of the day, but managed to catch some time with Leoni Hayten and Jayne Lee from the centre, at the end of the afternoon.
After talking with them both about the ethos and how important the centre is to so many people, it really does sound like something that should be supported as much as possible.
The statistics on the number of people suffering with mental health issues at some point in their lives is pretty high, so most of us probably know someone who would benefit from the services being offered.
There’s clearly a lot of passion for the work they do, so why not sit back for five minutes and hear what Jayne and Leoni had to say. Mike Jackson joined them for the photo too. [audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/church-view-open-day2010.mp3]
Update
Where
Church View is at 13, Church Street in Ventnor – up the hill from the post office and nearly opposite St Catherine’s Church.
