WITH reference to Kate Liptrot’s article Mental Health Unit To Close In York, Sparking New Concern (The Press, October 4), I attended St Andrew’s Counselling and Psychotherapeutic Unit from 2011 to 2012, where I was on the intensive group therapy program.

I owe a massive debt to St Andrew’s, the programme and its therapists.

Before starting St Andrew’s, I had tried other interventions, including counselling and CBT, but found that the state of my anxiety was only getting worse, to the point that I was requiring daily crisis visits and regular A&E admissions.

What St Andrew’s granted that other services could not was being part of a supportive healing group of similar individuals for three-and-a half days a week.

Through St Andrew’s, we were able to understand ourselves more through reaching out to others, and did not face the surfeit of alone time between appointments where the mind could so easily relapse.

Over the course of that year, I witnessed many individuals, myself included, making steady progress and huge gains to the point that many of us are now working or looking for work and few are a drain on resources.

Consequently, it seems extremely short-sighted for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to look for cost-cutting measures within a facility that so clearly enables long-term stability.

Chris Beckett, Walmer Carr, Wigginton, York.
 

• I read with dismay the article in The Press, October 4, about the possible closure of St Andrews in Huntington Road.

The controlling authorities obviously don’t understand the unique nature, within this region, of the treatment provided by St Andrews where several days a week of group therapy, for up to a year, is available.

In many cases this is an essential complement to medical treatment.

Most patients find social contact to be very difficult, if not impossible, and working in groups is needed to bring them back into normal society.

Our son was transformed by St Andrews from being suicidal and spending most of the day in bed, into a state where he is able to live an independent life.

I am sure that this would not have happened without the group therapy, which will disappear should the closure go ahead.

York would once again lose an essential service for what, as other readers have noted, is a very small cost saving measure.

Name and address supplied.