Ground breaking North London mental health clinic could close

The Ham and High reports:

A small psychotherapy clinic which offers counselling to some of the borough’s most vulnerable residents is fighting for survival after health bosses axed its funding.

Camden Psychotherapy Unit (CPU), in Kentish Town Road, was set up by in 1969 to provide psychoanalytic treatment to people suffering anxiety, depression, self harm and other serious mental health problems.

It treats around 80 patients every year, most of whom are either on very low wages or benefits and from immigrant communities – groups which don’t traditionally access psychotherapy.


But this “lifeline” could close within a year after Camden Primary Care Trust announced it will no longer commission services from the clinic, leaving the centre having to fundraise for its £85,000 annual budget.

“The effect on patients will be tragic,” said Ora Dresner, head of service at the centre.

“We have a huge amount of experience working with people who don’t even know how to spell the word psychotherapy, and we work with them very successfully.

“I am convinced that these people won’t get the treatment they need if we close.”


...The clinic estimates that because it is small and free from NHS bureaucracy, 90 per cent of staff time is spent in direct contact with patients.

Yet Ms Dresner claims that despite the good value for money it offers, it was squeezed out of the new tendering process because of its size.

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