STAFF at an East Lancashire mental health unit are to be issued with maps of a nearby village to help them find patients who have absconded.

Bosses at the Calderstones NHS Trust have been told that many staff can't find their way around Whalley, the nearest village to their Ribble Valley base, making it easier for patients with mental health difficulties to hide.

Around 200 patients are based on the Calderstones site at one time, many of who are allowed limited access off its grounds as part of work to rehabilitate them into the community.

But a report to the trust's board of directors has revealed that, in some cases, patients use the trips into Whalley as a chance to abscond.

And because many of Calderstones' staff don't know the area, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the patients and return them.

Maps of the area are now being issued to members of the 2,000-strong staff who would be involved in searches of the site.

Graham Jowett, director of corporate strategy at the trust, said: "The idea for the maps stems from the fact that, unlike the past, staff don't always know the local area.

"That means that if a client has, say, been allowed to go to the Spar shop in Whalley and not come back on time, the member of staff may not know where to look for them.

"And it also means that they wouldn't know where to look if we suggested going to the bus station in Whalley, just because they don't know where it is.'

An incident involving a patient known only as 'SW' in trust papers was used as an example of lack of local knowledge hampering the search operation.

Mr Jowett said: "The cases we are talking about are not people who aren't allowed off site at all, they are clients who are allowed off site as part of their treatment here."

In the past, Calderstones has come under fire for poor security after patients being held in the hospital's medium secure wing - who aren't allowed to leave - managed to flee.

They included one patient taken to Burnley General Hospital for treatment disappearing for an hour.

The convicted arsonist was found with a lighter. In another case, a patient was found at a pub in Halifax after disappearing.

A series of new security measures have been implemented following a Lancashire Evening Telegraph investigation.

The trust is also keeping in contact with Whalley Parish Council on issues which affect the community, Mr Jowett said.