The new base provides round the clock mental health support for people in parts of Birmingham
05:30, 14 May 2026
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
“I come in here crying but I leave smiling.” Birmingham’s first Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre (NMHC) is changing the way people get the support they need.
The Golden Hillock Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre was officially opened on Tuesday, May 12, and has been given a seal of approval by guests using services and NHS bosses in the region.
It moved into the former Ghamkol Sharif Education Centre earlier this year, enabling it to leave its temporary base at Omnia GP Practice and has supported 550 new referrals.
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It’s only one of six national pilot sites, and provides person-centred support for adults in Small Heath, Heartlands and Bordesley Green, offering a welcoming and inclusive space designed around the mental health needs of the local community.
Facilities include shared living and kitchen spaces, dedicated areas for reflection and wellbeing and bedrooms for short stays.
Guest Claire Hastings-Spaine, 48, suffers from depression, anxiety and some psychosis.
She said: “The new centre is really good. I was a bit dubious at first because obviously going somewhere new from where I was before in Chapman Road, but once I got used to the people it’s a really good place to come.
“I can come in here crying and I can go out of here smiling. It can be something small that’s upset me and I can get into depression.
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
“But coming here and talking, having the availability of someone to talk to is really great.
“I was at Chapman Road from 1998 and been with them ever since up until now where I’m here.
“In Chapman Road, you can’t just walk in. You have to make an appointment. If you can be feeling that bad you need to see a doctor, you kind of feel like you’ve been left.
“By the time you’ve got the appointment, I could be in a completely different mindset. Here is the advantage, you can come and speak to somebody when you’re feeling like that and most of the time it gets resolved.
“It will make a lot of difference. This place is really important and they should have more like it where there is access 24 hours.
“You’re not sick 9-5, you are sick whenever so having this place to come to is so important.”
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Darren Westwood, 43, also uses services but has begun running art classes to help other people who visit the centre.
He said: “I’m schizophrenic but mostly now I do artwork with guests here.
“I used to Green Lane for about 12 months doing one or two sessions per week. I run art classes. Mostly clay and pastel. Each week I try to do something different.
“I was going to a creative group as a service user and they said I was ok at art and asked ‘why don’t you start your own session’?”
He added: “I think the new building is beautiful, you are comfortable. It is great having a dedicated centre. It’s great for people who are struggling.
“For me, it’s great and just down the road. Other people will definitely appreciate it.
“I’m not too bad. I’m still on the road to recovery but the art is really good for me and it’s an achievement when I do the session. I often get people telling me they enjoyed the group.
“For them to turn around and say they got a lot from it is brilliant as I can relate to them.”
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Roísìn Fallon Williams, Chief Executive of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, said: “I feel so proud of being part of this community.
“This is about us really working with people to help shape how care will be best provided for them.
“When people come here, they are greeted openly, offered tea and coffee and so it’s not that traditional, you’ve come for an appointment, book in and go and sit in a unfamiliar clinical setting.
“It’s about wanting to support communities to have greater resilience as well.
“We’ve got lots of organisations we’ve connected with and discovered just in this small locality who want to support and are working in this centre with us.
“The newness is the approach. If you come through the door, whatever your level of need we will find a way to get you in a service in a timely way.
“We do have a range of services available 24/7 but it’s the concept of not having to make an appointment or referral and can just turn up when needed.
“The feedback we’re getting is really positive. People are accessing it who would not have accessed our services until they were very unwell, if at all.”
And David Melbourne, Chief Executive of the new NHS Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull ICB, said: “It’s a wonderful facility in one of our most deprived wards.
“It’s embedded in the local neighbourhood. This encapsulates neighbourhood care closer to home.
“I think it will be enormous for people here. Access is all to often an issue for users and unfortunately we see too many people landing at Heartlands Hospital A&E.
“This stops that. It’s an intervention and will make a real difference in people being seen by the right people and early on.”
He added he wants to see this model rolled out across Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.
He said: “There is a real desire for this. We want to roll this out because it is a concrete example of neighbourhood healthcare in mental health services.
“Our desire is to commission these. Mental health is as important as physical health.”