BARNSLEY'S adult mental health patients are being told to arrange their own respite care.

Patients classed as needing non-medical care will no longer be offered it in Kendray Hospital's specialispsychiatric ward, Ward 5.

The Primary Care Trust (PCT) plans to introduce individual budgets so patients can book themselves into a residential centre when they feel they need respite.

Sandra Allott's husband Stephen, 52, has paranoid schizophrenia and visits Ward 5 for respite every eight weeks. She says the new arrangements are totally unsuitable.

She said: "How can you expect a person with mental health problems to go out there, look for respite care and sort it out himself?

"They are not putting my husband in a home for the elderly, a care home or nursing home. It would just make matters worse."

A former miner, Steven's condition was triggered after he was made redundant in the 1990s. He has been going to Kendray for the last eight years.

Paranoid schizophrenia affects people in different ways but when Steven is in crisis he is uncooperative, withdrawn, sleeps all day, won't get out of bed and won't shower.

At Kendray he gets complete rest and nursing staff encourage him to do everyday tasks like setting the table and washing to bring him out of himself.