Coalville's Crisis Cafe was officially launched at the Marlene Reid Centre on Monday - and aims to remove boundaries for people who need support with their mental health.

Crisis Cafes are drop-in centres for anyone to come and talk - no appointment is needed.

the first of the new set of venues in Leicestershire, the Marlene Reid Centre (MRC) Community Action Crisis Cafe, had its opening event.

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioing Groups (LLR CCGs) and Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), in partnership with Voluntary Action LeicesterShire (VAL) are expanding the number of cafes as they announced the next 11 to open across the county.

Monday's launch featured local music, comedy and poetry in front of an invited audience - and included many of the people who will be actively involved with the cafe.

MRC general manager Paul Fagan told Coalville Nub News: "We've started this week and Monday's event was about getting local acts in the room who can then go and communicate about it to their service users.

A number of local acts appeared at the launch event at the MRC

"We had everyone from NHS workers, local councillors, people from schools, a really broad section of people who we think are important stakeholders in this project.

"From a performance point of view, we had Nicky who did a poetry recital, and has been part of our well being group for over a year now

"And it was that group that made us feel that we could deliver something like a Crisis Cafe.

"A lot of the people we saw on stage will be the people you'll see, front and centre, at the Crisis Cafe project.

"Already, people can identify with who they will be meeting.

"if you look at the events we do as an organisation, gone are the boundaries where coming into the building, and not knowing anyone, was a scary thing.

"We've covered that bit off as the people connected with the Crisis Cafe are all known characters here.

"We've been operational since yesterday (Wednesday), we have three sessions, Monday from 2-6pm, Wednesday and Friday, 6-10pm.

"The NHS guidance is that people experience mental health problems during the dark hours."

Paul believes that MRC being chosen as a Crisis Cafe opens the door for the centre to provide more services in the future.

He added: "The NHS has done a study into this, they know by investing to this level of mental health support , it'll enable them to deliver services in a better fashion.

"There is a challenge however, this event was not something that you would put on social media and people think: "Yes I want to come to that."

"We're trying a slightly different word-of-mouth type of approach. We feel it's more appropriate that way

"But we're working things out. Monday's launch was the first time we've really tried this kind of approach.

MRC general manager Paul Fagan

"Social media is really strong for us, but it's 2,000-3,000 followers in a district of 100,000 people.

"This is about us trying different ways of doing things."

Paul says Coalville has been been chosen as the venue for one of the county's cafes for a good reason.

He added: "The plan is to have a Crisis Cafe attached to every Primary Care Network.

"This will be the one for the Coalville district patch.

"We got this because Coalville is well supported due to grant funding.

"Plus we have a good track record, we are already delivering in terms of the well-being programme.

"That and this are good bedfellows .

"Plus having an NHS badge bodes well for future applications.

"It's a strong alignment for us."