A PROJECT is underway for a mental health unit in Southampton to have its walls filled with creative art.

This comes after Southern Health’s Calmore-based Bluebird House was one of five UK trusts which were selected for a £45,000 project organised by national charity ‘Hospital Rooms’, with an aim to transform the unit with artwork created by world-class artists.

As a result of the funding, artists Charley Peters, Richard Woods, Ryan Mosely, Simon Bayliss, Tim A Shaw and Yukako Shibata will transform communal spaces in the ten-bed adolescent mental health unit over the next six months in time for its public exhibition launch in early 2020.

Richard Woods creates architectural installations, whilst Ryan Mosely is a painter who is "motivated by the surreal world" and Yukako Shibata is a London-based artist who produces "calming and playful" artistic pieces, reflecting the different art forms which will fill the unit with colour.

Bluebird House is the second child and adolescent mental health unit to be selected by Hospital Rooms and is the charity's first collaboration with Southern Health.

The unit offers round-the-clock nursing care and education to adolescents with severe and long-standing mental health problems who might have come into contact with the criminal justice system, with an average stay of one year.

Patients, staff and artists will take part in a series of art workshops over the coming months to discuss and inspire the work that will be created.

Southern Health’s clinical service manager (CAMHS) Karen Dixon said: "Anticipation has been high and we’re delighted the project is now starting at Bluebird House. The charity has carefully selected artists which they feel have the ability to speak to our vulnerable and hard to reach patients most effectively so this is an exciting time for everyone at the unit."