MILITARY personnel in Tidworth are being provided with mental health care as a new inpatient unit has been opened at Parklands Hospital in Basingstoke.

The service, from Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, is part of a major Ministry of Defence initiative to provide mental health care to personnel across the country.

The unit will initially cover Tidworth, Aldershot and Portsmouth enabling treatment to be offered close to the patient’s home or parent unit.

The four-bed facility will allow MOD patients to be treated in their own private area with bedrooms, lounge, toilet, garden and gym.

Hampshire Partnership is part of a network of seven NHS trusts which have been awarded the MOD contract to provide in-patient mental healthcare.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter McAllister, head of army psychiatry said: “The vast majority of service personnel are assessed and treated for psychological problems at one of our regional military-run departments of community mental health.

“A very small proportion will require to be admitted for inpatient treatment but for those that do it is a great benefit for the patients that this care can be delivered at Parklands Hospital, close to both their place of work and their homes so they can be supported by both their military unit and their family.”