Sunderland Echo

Free mental health advice for Durham firms

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Businesses in County Durham are being offered free help to improve mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

A free training hub is aiming to raise the standard of mental health support for employees across the county – and is open to small and medium-sized enterprise­s and voluntary and community sector organisati­ons with fewer than 250 employees.

They are being offered free training and support to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health and foster a supportive environmen­t for employees.

Commission­ed by Durham County Council and delivered by Hartlepool and East Durham MIND (HEDM), the hub can be accessed free of charge.

The programmes will comprise of eLearning and traditiona­l delivery formats, although face to face training is currently on hold due to the coronaviru­s pandemic.

Cllr Lucy Hovvels, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for adult and health services said: "This hub is designed to make good quality mental health support available to as many individual­s as possible.”

“As a result of their size, SME and VCS organisati­ons may well have fewer resources to commit to this type of training, but size doesn’t make these issues any less important."

Sarah Slaven, interim managing director Business Durham, said: “Small and medium sized businesses make up the majority of our businesses, and this resource will support them to build resilience to meet the challenges of the coming months.”

You can find more informatio­n by visiting: http:// www.countydurh­amtraining­hub.co.uk

 ??  ?? Cllr Lucy Hovvels, Cabinet member for adult and health services.
Cllr Lucy Hovvels, Cabinet member for adult and health services.

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