My charity sees the toll of job losses on mental health - we struggle to meet demand

I work in one of the poorest areas of the north east. At a time when we’re needed most, we’ve seen our funding cut by 60%

As chief executive of a small mental health charity in one of the poorest areas of north east England, I don’t sleep well. We deliver frontline recovery services in Redcar & Cleveland and in 2011 our funding was cut by 61% in one fell swoop. We used to get £350,000 from the local authority; now we manage on £135,000.

Meanwhile, mass unemployment and financial pressure have taken their toll on people’s mental health and we’ve seen demand more than double. The steelworks used to be the lifeblood of our community and its closure in 2015 has been catastrophic.

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Too many people need us, and our resources are limited. Very limited.

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Continue reading... January 06, 2018 at 04:10PM