A FEASIBILITY study has begun to work out as quickly as possible what needs to be done to improve mental health crisis services in Ceredigion.

Paul Hinge, the chair of Hywel Dda Community Health Council, said there had been improvements to community services across the county.

But he said there was still a desperate need for crisis services and an inpatient facility in Ceredigion.

Sian Marie James, the health board’s vice-chair, admitted that more needed to be done in Ceredigion.

She said a feasibility study had already been launched to look into what services could be provided in the county, outside of a current engagement process looking at mental health services across the whole of the health board area.

“We do acknowledge we need to do something quickly in Ceredigion and a feasibility study has begun,” she said.

Mr Hinge had warned that patients and their families in Ceredigion needed to see progress being made as the service in Ceredigion had been “floundering” and that problems encountered by board members travelling to a meeting in Aberystwyth showed the difficulties patients and their families experienced in having to go to Carmarthen for treatment.

He said: “You’ve all experienced the distances we have to travel to access these services, but we do need a crisis centre in Ceredigion. This does need quite a bit of pace on it as we have been floundering for quite some time.”

See next week’s south editions for the full story