Mental health hub opens in high-risk area
BBCA mental health and wellbeing hub is opening in a county with suicide rates among the highest in England.
In the years 2020-23, more than 300 people died by suspected suicide in Cumbria, with the highest rate in the former borough of Copeland.
Hope Haven in Whitehaven is one of six pilot centres across the country aiming to tackle poor mental health before it escalates to crisis point or where hospital treatment is needed.
Associate director of the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust David Storm said it was a "completely radical" way of addressing mental health problems.
In 2023, the rate of suicide in Cumbria was 16.3 per 100,000 people, up from 15.5 in 2021. The England rate was 10.6 per 100,000 in 2022.
Cumberland Council showed every area of the county has a higher rate of suicide than the collective England rate, except South Lakeland.
Hope Haven will open daily and at weekends until midnight to offer one-to-one support, remote help via phone or online, and group activities in an open space in what was once a branch of Halifax bank.
There are also four flats nearby for anyone who is struggling and needs overnight accommodation.
Referrals are not required and anyone over the age of 18 and looking for support can walk in and ask for it.
"I think this will make a huge difference," Storm said.
"We know the difficulties that exist in west Cumbria in particular and this is a completely radical and new way of approaching mental health."
The service had been operating temporarily in the Senhouse Centre.
One of the 150 people who have received support, Annette Murray-Hamilton from Cleator Moor, said her mental health was affected when she became the victim of theft and the service had helped her.
"I'm stronger than I was," she said.
"Initially, I wouldn't have said anything, but now there's a buzz, I want to move on."
Some of the staff at the hub have been through struggles of their own and are now working as "peer supporters".
Clinical lead Liam Edmondson said: "I've experienced my own mental health difficulties and I think that really helps break down barriers.
"Once you share what you've been through, people naturally open up and the more you give, the more you get back," he said. "It's yielding good results."
Last year, the Yewdale ward for people needing inpatient mental health care at West Cumberland Hospital closed.
Storm said the new project was not connected to Yewdale.
"But what we've already seen with Hope Haven is that we've reduced the number of particularly informal admissions to any mental health hospital," he said.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this report, support and help is available at BBC Action Line.
