MENTAL health services leaders have voiced fears the number of suicides in the North-East will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, as official figures showed the region had the highest rate in England.

The Office for National Statistics figures show there were 305 suicides - 13.2 per 100,000 North-East residents - in 2014 - more than 40 per cent more than the region's total for 2007, and the highest figure in more than a decade.

The substantially higher rate than London and Yorkshire, which saw 7.8 and 9.7 per cent per 100,000 residents in 2014 respectively, has sparked calls for action to improve access to mental health services across the region.

Suicide rates increased across all English regions in 2014, apart from Yorkshire, saw an 11 per cent decrease from 10.9 to 9.7 deaths per 100,000 population, despite self-inflicted deaths rising in Hambleton district from six to ten.

The 2014 figures show Stockton-on-Tees saw its highest suicide total in 13 years with suicides doubling from 16 in 2013, while suicides in Redcar and Cleveland soared from eight in 2013 to 19 the following year and in Middlesbrough from 17 to 28 over the same period.

There were slight decreases in suicides in Darlington, Richmondshire Northumberland and Hartlepool, while County Durham and bucked the trend with suicides falling from its highest total, 92, in 2013 to 64 the following year.

Neil Kelly, chair of trustees for Mental Health North East said while accessing services was a nationwide issue, the underlying economic structure of the North-East was playing a key role in the area's high suicide rates, most of which were men.

He added: "There's a cultural element in it, with men in North-East communities that were based on mining or shipbuilding being seen as the main breadwinners, who now have little prospect of upcoming work.

"I don't think there are any quick fixes and I don't see any major shift in the upward trend of suicides in the region for some time to come."

Tony Vickers, director of Darlington Samaritans, said people, such as Teesside steel workers, who had been laid off were two or three times more likely to commit suicide, so the charity was looking at ways of encouraging men to admit they had problems, such as communicating online.

A North Yorkshire clinical psychologist, whose name is withheld, said the rising suicide rate was also likely to reflect the increasing difficulty mental health patients faced accessing services, a point raised in the House of Commons in December by North Durham MP Kevan Jones.

The Samaritans are available 24 hours a day on 08457-909-090.