A NEW £250,000 facility helping deaf children in Scarborough and across the county has been unveiled.
The facility is based at the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust's Lime Trees site in York and supports 80 children and their families.
The service is designed to meet a child's individual communication needs as well as any mental health n
eeds which are linked to more complex neurological problems.
This new facility, which includes dedicated patient consultation and meeting areas, will help to provide an improved environment for families using the service.
There are also video conferencing facilities to enable deaf people to be contacted using sign language in the same way hearing people would use the telephone.
Mandy Barker, York deaf child and family services manager, said: "We are really pleased to unveil this new facility. The building is bright and airy which makes it much better for lip reading and seeing sign language.
"It will certainly make it much easier for us to deliver the care children and their families need now that we have a purpose-built facility specifically designed for the service."
John Clare, the PCT's assistant director of mental health, said: "The new extension at Lime Trees ensures that an excellent and innovative service is supported in its work by smart, well equipped facilities. The service provides expert support to children and their families with complex needs who would otherwise be very isolated."
