About Leeds Crisis Centre

Leeds Crisis Centre   is a twenty year old council run crisis counselling centre which provides same day counselling for anyone in Leeds. It provides intensive support to around 500 desperate people a year and advice and signposting to another 700. The only proposal being taken to the council executive on Feb 11th is to close the Centre completely and there appears to have been little consultation or thought put in about this. From the message exchange below with Cllr Yeadon, you will see that we are objecting to what is happening on four main points:  

500 people receive a crisis response from the Centre each year. These are people at a level of risk which excludes them from other counselling services. What does the council envisage happening to them in future? Have they costed the impact of their support on other services and the risk to their safety?

Cllr Yeadon says that the Crisis Centre must close because it is a discretionary service and counselling is the role of the NHS. What, then, are her plans for these other similar services, currently funded by the council:  the Women’s Counselling and Therapy Service, Leeds MIND Counselling and Therapy Service and (in partnership with the NHS) the Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service?

Cllr Yeadon claims that  “all possible options around the future of the Crisis Centre”  have been thought through and discussed with the NHS. So why are there no details of the costs of other options in the Executive Board meeting minutes & paper? We would like to see the details of these other options and their costs, but suspect that no such detailed work has taken place.

Service users, GPs and others tell us they had no idea the Centre was facing closure. How many current or recent service users have been contacted in the council’s consultation? How many professionals working at services who refer to the Crisis Centre have been contacted? Shouldn’t all efforts be taken to find out the relevant informaton before taking such an important decision?

We hope you find this additional information useful. You can find many comments from service users, GPs and others on our website:
http://saveleedscrisiscentre.wordpress.com/ which also keeps track of those supporting us, including Greg Mulholland MP, Fabian Hamilton MP, three councillors, Stephen Fry, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Susie Orbach Faye Mellor and Jon Snow.

Thanks,
Save Leeds Crisis Centre