A HEALTH trust at the forefront of street-level triage to help keep mental health suffers out of police cells has received a cash boost to extend its services.

The Government has announced a £674,000 investment to provide improved mental health crisis services across the Cleveland area.

The money will fund an urgent care base, covering Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton council areas, which will increase capacity to ensure vulnerable people are provided with the most appropriate support.

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is one of 15 agencies across the country, covering ten police force areas, where use of police cells as a place of safety has previously been amongst the highest. In 2014/15, police cells were used as a place of safety in the Cleveland Police force area on 119 occasions.

David Brown, director of operations for Teesside at TEWV NHS Trust, welcomed the investment to help build on the service it launched in July last year that helps keep mental health patients out of police cells.

He said: “Since opening its doors the service has seen over 3,700 people and more than 200 individuals in mental health crisis present to the service each month.

“Now we have had the experience of running this service we know we need more space and this new funding will allow us to have a new, larger base to see people. It will mean that different crisis and urgent care services can be based together, allowing quicker access to support at peak times. It will also support joined up working between services and partner agencies resulting in better outcomes and experiences for our service users.”