A NEW home for people with mental illnesses is to open in Weston next week. The community mental health house in Locking Castle will offer care for people who have spent long periods in hospital but are not ready to return home because their lives have be

A NEW home for people with mental illnesses is to open in Weston next week.The community mental health house in Locking Castle will offer care for people who have spent long periods in hospital but are not ready to return home because their lives have been disrupted.People with problems like depression, eating disorders or schizophrenia will be looked after at the Elmham Way facility.Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust has built the home. It is also opening a mental health 'resource centre' at Diamond Batch where health and social services staff will be based. The two facilities have cost £4.5million.A trust spokesman said: "People living in the community mental health house will have access to help and support 24 hours a day. Staff working in the house would be able to access appropriate treatment and care for anyone whose health started to deteriorate. "If any of the service users living in the house became acutely ill then they could be admitted to the Long Fox Unit at the hospital in the same way as anyone else living on Locking Castle who developed an acute mental health problem could be admitted.