A HEALTH trust has won three national honours for its work in spreading the word to staff, patients and the public.

Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust's communication team won two awards and were highly commended in a third category, at an Association of Healthcare Communicators conference.

They won the inequalities and public health award for their work in launching a Teesside Suicide Prevention Charter.

The team also won the staff communication award for an internal guide, produced to help the trust's 3,000 staff devise posters and leaflets, stage events and raise awareness of mental health and learning disabilities services.

It was highly commended in the patient and public involvement section for setting up the trust's Passionate People group, which gives talks about mental health and learning disabilities as part of a campaign to tackle stigma.

Caroline Parnell, the trust's head of communication, said: "We were delighted just to be shortlisted for three national awards, so to win two and be highly commended in the third was way above our expectations."