Burnham-On-Sea charity Somewhere House Somerset – which provides support to people suffering with mental health issues – has extended its services to help more people during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The charity, which is based in Burnham’s Berrow Road, has begun offering telephone and video calls to its clients and anyone encountering difficulties during the virus outbreak such as depression, relationship, anxiety and isolation issues.
The charity’s Angie Clarke told Burnham-On-Sea.com on Monday: “We were approached by the local mental health alliance asking if we were interested in extending our service to help those in Sedgemoor in regards to the Covid-19 outbreak.”
“Some of our team have now been seconded to MIND 01823-334906Â Â so they can offer 24-hour support throughout Somerset which started on Monday.”
“We have also upgraded our service and have been able to offer video and telephone support to anyone who needs this. It can be accessed either through our website
www.somewherehousesomerset.org where there is a referral form or by calling the office on  01278 780769 or emailing on
info@somewherehousesomerset.org.”
“The mental health alliance has had to put a lot of its work on hold but we are all working together to offer extended support to all with challenges.”
“This is from financial support, mental health counselling, computer based training with direct links to all the different services, from whoever the person makes the initial contact with. This can be statutory services as well as VCSE (Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise) services.”
“It’s a fantastic idea and allows broader options, giving recognition to all of the hard work that is already happening in our communities. In the future this will be more apparent after lock down, opening up the map of support and continuity of care. Hopefully filling in the gaps that are out there.”
“In the next couple of weeks we will be doing our coffee and chat meeting via Zoom so people who regularly use our monthly coffee mornings will still be able to link in. As soon as we are allowed we will be extending this to the local destinations and bringing with us other mental health support.”
Anyone can either call the telephone number 01278 780769, email or use the referral form on the websiteÂ
