The Abingdon Keystone Mental Health & Wellbeing Hub celebrated its official opening today, with a wide range of people attending, including local councillors, support staff at the hub, and people from the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust who provide the service. Meridian News was also present to cover the event.

The hub offers a new approach to supporting people with ongoing mental health problems by bringing care and support close to people when they need it most. Members of the public can drop-in from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to learn more about the services available, and how to access them.

I spoke to a staff member who provides support to help people stay in work or return to work. I also spoke to some peer support workers who have used mental health services and now provide peer support to others. I took away a leaflet about the Psychological Therapies provided at the hub.

The hub is in the centre of town on Bury Street.

There are big changes in the way health services are to be delivered and Monica had to request that a Roadshow came to Abingdon as the second largest town in the county.

The NHS in Oxfordshire is calling on young people, parents, patients, carers and people who live and work in Oxfordshire to have their say on how health care is delivered. They are seeking your views on how local GP, community and hospital services should develop so that services are of high quality, closer to home, more convenient with better access and can overcome a £200m funding gap by 2020/21.

The event will be a ‘drop in’ style and staff will be available to have an informal chat with you to share ideas on how NHS services in Oxfordshire can deliver high quality care now and in the future. The Big Conversation Abingdon Roadshow will be held on Wednesday 19 October 9.30am to 4pm – Abingdon Community FreeSpace Shop, Bury Street (opposite H. Samuel).

Staff will be available to answer your questions between 10am and 2pm, outside of those times please feel free to pop in and pick up some information.

The new traffic barrier at the Marcham Road Health Centre has made the news again.

Both the Health Centre and Community Hospital next door are run by the NHS, and appear to be thriving from the amount of traffic they attract. Abingdon residents have campaigned on more than one occasion in the last fifteen years to keep the Community Hospital open, and so its success is good news.

But parking has become a problem and so the Health Centre has introduced a barrier to ensure their patients and staff can find parking when they need it.

It leads to a strange sight at weekends when an empty Health Centre Car Park is seen alongside a busy Hospital Car Park.