A TOTAL of £8.4m Government money has been allocated to an NHS trust to improve mental health and disability services.

The funding has been awarded to the Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust for its modernisation programme, codenamed Advance.

Money will be spent on inpatient mental health services, including a new building for people in Hartlepool and Easington, in County Durham.

Services for old people in Stockton, Hartlepool and Easington will also be improved.

The funding will mean new premises in Hartlepool for mental health inpatient services and a new building in Durham Road, Stockton, to provide mental health services for elderly people.

Money will also be spent on providing accommodation for adults with severe mental health problems who cannot be cared for in their own homes.

The Government agreed to allocate the money after the trust received support from the County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority.

Moira Britton, trust chief executive, said: "Patients tell us that they want access to more services closer to their own homes and that is what we will aim to provide.

"By developing more robust and comprehensive community services to support people with mental health problems, we will enable them to remain safely in their own homes.

"In the future, hospital care will be reserved for people in severe crisis or with specialist mental health problems."

The trust has not yet chosen a site for its services in Hartlepool, but the £8.4m funding means it will be able to begin work on planning the new purpose-built units in Hartlepool and Stockton, which should be ready for patients and staff to move in to by February 2006.

Ken Jarrold, chief executive of County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority, said: "This project reflects the model of care that we want to see for everyone using health services in the area."

If more money is granted as part of the Advance programme, work in the future will include more support projects to help people in their own homes, replacing the 106-year-old St Luke's Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

The Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust employs nearly 3,000 workers at 50 sites