People with Mental Health Problems

What do we mean by Mental Health?

I in 4 people in the UK at some point in their lives will have some kind of mental health problem.

The term 'mental illness' can mean a wide variety of things, examples include: Worries, grief and stress that can arise in our everyday life Depression or suicidal feelings Loss of touch with everyday life / reality. A day-to day problem can sometimes develop into a mental health issue. This is usually identified when it affects the sufferer's ability to live normally on a day-to-day level.

Most people can learn to live successfully with stress or negative feelings. However, more serious mental health problems can leave someone feeling overwhelmed by life, and can also be worrying or disturbing for the people around them.

Mental health problems

There are many, many types of mental health problem - you may have heard a lot of the names for certain conditions. They include anxiety, manic depression, personality disorder, insomnia, narcolepsy, neurosis, nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, paranoia, and schizophrenia. There are many other terms for all sorts of conditions that begin in the mind. Definitions for all of these, and many others, can be found at www.mentalhealth.org.uk.

Support Services

There are many services in Stockton that support people with mental ill health and their carers. Stockton Council works with lots of groups and organisations to make sure that people get the services they need.

Stockton Council provides its social care services in partnership with Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV).

The council also work with the local service user and carers groups, voluntary groups and private sector providers.

We are committed to putting every person who needs support at the heart of all that we do and for people with mental health problems this means being flexible and offering every one who is eligible for social care services the opportunity to direct their own support.

Our self directed support system empowers people to take control and shape their own lives by identifying their own needs and organising their own support to meet those needs in a way that makes sense to them. This can be achieved through personal choice by either accessing services the council provide, through approved services provided by an independent organisation or through the offer of a direct payment.

To take the first steps to see if you are eligible for self directed support and for further information about any other Adult Care services please get in touch with our First Contact Team (contact details on this page).

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