A health trust is to appoint an occupational therapy consultant for adult mental health.

Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust has been given permission by the Allied Health Professions Consultant Panel to start recruiting for the post.

Occupational therapists devise activities to help people with mental health problems cope with everyday tasks.

There are only two other occupational therapy consultants in the country - one in London specialising in learning disabilities and one in Poole, Dorset, who works in mental health among older people.

The trust, which is based in Middlesbrough, is one of only a few in the country to employee five consultant nurses,specialising in adult mental health, liaison psychiatry, child and adolescent mental health, forensic mental health and primary care mental health.

It is also advertising for two further consultant nurses to work with people who have learning disabilities and in the area of adult mental health.