PEOPLE from Gwent who have serious mental illnesses that require treatment in a low secure unit will be much less likely to have to be treated far from home, if plans to boost specialist treatment here come to fruition.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is developing a proposal to build a 32-bed low secure unit at an as yet unconfirmed location.

And a regional unit - which could also accommodate patients from the Powys and Cwm Taf health board areas, and which would require an extra 14 beds - is under consideration as an alternative.

The 32-bed proposal by Gwent's health board is the subject of what is known as a strategic outline case, which will be forwarded to the Welsh Government for consideration.

Should approval be granted, it would then be for the health board to develop the proposal in more detail.

The unit would be "initially aimed at health board residents that are currently accommodated outside of Gwent in high cost private provision", according to a health board report.

Low secure inpatient placements for seriously mentally ill patients are in short supply, and this means that those who require them in Gwent often have to be treated at "high cost private sector" facilities.

These can be many miles away from patients' homes and families, making visiting and monitoring difficult.

Such arrangements are also costly, with out-of-county low secure placements often reaching more than £100,000 per patient.

Overall, such placements cost the health board several millions of pounds a year - and while building a low secure unit will also be expensive, it is believed that the savings to be made from sending far fewer patients out-of-county will repay any initial investment.

A larger regional low secure unit would work on the same principle, and there is considerable merit, and savings to be made, in having a single unit serving neighbouring health board areas.

Cwm Taf University Health Board and Powys Teaching Health Boards have been asked to provide what an Aneurin Bevan University Health Board report calls letters of 'support in principle' for a regional unit.