A NEW service in Winchester is set to help scores of people with mental health problems over the next three years.

Winchester Befrienders will support sufferers, reducing their sense of isolation and, crucially, helping them back into community life.

Grants of £109,000 have been secured from the county council and the Big Lottery Fund to fund the scheme for three years.

The befriender service, largely staffed by volunteers who have suffered mental illness themselves, aims to help 195 people over that period.

Stuart Banks, senior development manager for Winchester Area Community Action, said many people were not being helped in the long term by the NHS.

Mr Banks said: “There is a real need. The current services are geared to helping people for four to six weeks.”

One of the major problems was ensuring the problem was treated in the longer-term. GPs do not have the time and so for many sufferers were prone to relapses.

He added: “We need befrienders. Former service users who have come through and will have the knowledge of what they can do to help others.”

Mr Banks told the town forum, that a quarter of people, equivalent to 28,000 in the Winchester district, would suffer some form of mental illness in their lives.

Councillors on the forum were supportive but worried what might happen after three years if the funding suddenly dried up.

Councillor Ian Tait said: “Expectations can be raised and then the funding goes and you leave people in the lurch.”

Mr Banks, based at WACA on St George's Street, said the local NHS could take it over or it could become a charity in its own right.

Cllr Chris Pines said: “I don’t see how you can keep the numbers down to 195 because there is enormous demand out there.”

He suggested a future forum could ask the NHS mental health providers, the Hampshire Partnership Trust, to a future meting to discuss its services. He said: “It is a criticism of the NHS that Befrienders is necessary.”