Summary
Strategic Issue 1
The rates of suicide and hospital admissions for self-harm are significantly worse than the national average.
What needs to be done
Prevention strategies, crisis support and specialised services for suicide and self-harm prevention.
Develop and maintain the local suicide prevention action plan, informed by local data including service usage and hot spot data from coroners and police.
Cross-sector collaboration with NHS, police, schools and voluntary organisations & community groups. Include those with lived experience in planning and decision-making.
Ensure timely access to crisis support, talking therapies and community mental health teams. Promote awareness of services such as Samaritans, 24/7 crisis lines and local support groups. Increase funding for crisis support and urgent care centres to ensure demand is met and wait times reduced.
Understanding the high burden among young people and the gender differences (higher suicide among males and higher self-harm admissions among females).
Targeted young adult’s services for early intervention with digital wellbeing initiatives.
Inclusive service design within young adult and adults’ services to ensure individual need is met.
Strategic Issue 2
Mental health has multiple risk factors many of which Hartlepool has high rates of (such as poverty, unemployment, housing insecurity, substance misuse and obesity & physical inactivity).
What needs to be done
Cross-sectional consideration of mental health in all policies, including staff training in areas including housing, employment, education, poverty action group and substance misuse services.
A mental health impact assessment should be undertaken in all policy areas.
Support debt advice services, food banks and community hubs as protective factors through training opportunities.
Within the workplace, appoint mental health champions among elected members and senior officers, provide training for all staff on mental health awareness particularly for front-line staff.
Strategic Issue 3
Mental ill-health can affect many people highlighting the current demand for services and there is a rising prevalence in young adults indicating future demand and strain on existing services.
What needs to be done
Improve access to services and prepare for future demand.
Train frontline staff such as GPs, teachers, housing officers, and those within the community who volunteer. Successful campaigns include training for barbers in Torbay to look out for their clients37.
Advertise services through a promotional communications campaign, encourage residents to check in with people in the Borough.
Introduce mental health navigators to community hubs to guide individuals through services, creating a “front door” to support.
Improve access to social prescribing, community engagement and intergenerational initiatives to expand early intervention and low-intensity support opportunities. Community based services that do not require clinical referral to provide easy access.
Ensure timely access to crisis support, talking therapies and community mental health teams. Promote awareness of services such as Samaritans, 24/7 crisis lines and local support groups.
Strategic Issue 4
There are high levels of unemployment and long-term jobseeker’s claimants which exacerbate mental ill-health.
What needs to be done
Provide mental health support to those who are unemployed to support individuals in both aspects.
Integrate mental health into employment support by offering tailored, individual support. Within mental health services use employment advisors to determine job readiness with mental health need.
Create peer-to-peer support groups to reduce isolation, encourage volunteering and group activities to kick-start. Involve unemployed individuals in support program design and train and employ peer mentors and mental health champions to create feedback loops that adapt services based on real need.
Promote mental health literacy by provide accessible resources that encourage wellbeing both digital and face-to-face workshop.
Embed mental health within the local employment growth plan in partnership with NHS and voluntary organisations.
Support should be inclusive and gender sensitive.