WORK began yesterday on a £4m mental health unit for old people in north Durham.

Durham City MP Gerry Steinberg performed the turf- turning ceremony at the building site in the grounds of Earl's House in Durham.

The state-of-the-art facilities were welcomed by patients groups who had long bemoaned the lack of provision for the elderly with mental problems, particularly Alz-heimer's Disease.

The new unit will replace the outdated and crumbling Roseberry and Picktree wards on the Chester-le-Street Community Hospital site, and significantly improve on the day hospital currently on the Highfield Hospital site near the town's Civic Centre.

The unit, the most advanced of its kind in the county, will include the following:

l two wards, each containing 15 single rooms, some with en-suite facilities;

l 25 day care places;

l outpatient clinics;

l other facilities including physiotherapy and occupational therapy rooms.

Sandy Taylor, chief executive at County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust, said the new buildings were sorely needed.

He said: "The wards at Chester-le-Street were designed for general patients. They were very old and didn't offer the standard of privacy and dignity expected in the 21st Century.

"All the accommodation in the new unit will be single rooms, some of which will have en-suite facilities.

"In a traditional ward they are sharing with four or five people and if they get upset, everybody will get upset.

"As well as separate rooms for privacy, they are also decorated in the right way.

"We do know through research into dementia that floor coverings and the colour of doors, for instance, can have a profound effect on people when they are moved from their familiar environment - their home - to a unit.

"Some people see a change in the colour of a carpet and think it's a step, for example.

"This new unit was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design a facility with this in mind and directly around the needs of patients"

Eric Turner, chairman of North Durham Community Health Council, said he was delighted that work had started on the unit. He said: "Anything that improves the quality of health care in this part of Durham has to be applauded.