A MENTAL health charity in Cornwall has warned it could face imminent closure if it is not able to find a reliable source of funding.

Sea Sanctuary - an award-winning charity based in Penryn that provides mental health and well-being support that focuses on sailing experiences, water sports, and riverside therapy, to name a few - has warned that its closure could leave thousands of vulnerable people across Cornwall with no access to mental health care. 

Unless successful in raising £200,000 by the end of December 2022, Sea Sanctuary will close and says the effect of its services ceasing to exist for the people it supports, many of whom are suicidal, would be catastrophic.

The charity has now launched a ‘Save Our Sanctuary’ fundraiser in the hopes of raising the money needed to help keep its doors open to those in need.

Joe Sabien, founder and CEO of Sea Sanctuary, told The Packet: "Sea Sanctuary has provided mental health care for the Cornish community since about 2010.

"We've supported thousands of young people, adults, veterans, police officers, NHS staff, and unfortunately we've made the decision to launch a public appeal to raise funds, and if we're unsuccessful, the charity closes at the end of December."

Sea Sanctuary is the largest non-statutory provider of mental health care in Cornwall and says it picks up a lot of work from the NHS, with many of the people it helps coming to them after receiving treatment from the NHS that wasn't useful to them.

Joe continued: "Our work isn't offered anywhere else in the country, it's absolutely cutting edge.

"For us, we're now looking at hundreds and hundreds of people a year who come to us routinely for help, rather than being signposted they'll come to us direct, and we've done absolutely remarkable work.

"One of the main problems for us is, on the back of Covid, we had to close our trauma-focussed children's home down.

"We couldn't get staff to keep the children safe so we made the decision to close the home, and unfortunately, doing so cut down our income by about 70 percent.

"It wasn't profitable in that we would put the money back in, but it's still income that has now gone.

"The funding climate has now changed and it's much harder to secure funds."

Sea Sanctuary also claim that they had been in talks with the NHS about them using its service, this is no longer going ahead in a move they're describing as a 'U-turn.'

Joe added: "The charity is a community asset, everybody knows somebody who is mentally ill or unwell, and once it's gone, it's gone.

"What we're looking for is the funding to stay open, we're looking for some benefactors and some business to get behind us to keep this charity alive.

"We need to highlight what's happening in the county, as mental health services are quite awful."

If you would like to donate to the Sea Sanctuary appeal, you can do so online at seasanctuary.org.uk/appeal, by fundraising on behalf of the charity, or by donating via text by texting 'SOSAPPEAL' followed by your donation to 70085 to give that amount.

If you wish to donate but don't wish to hear more from the Sea Sanctuary, please text 'SOSAPPEALNOINFO' instead.