Vision: The North East will have the most favourable measures of mental health and happiness in the country.

We will establish a Regional Advisory Group for Mental Health, Happiness and Well-being.

• Sufferers of poor mental health will have access to individually funded physical activity support.
• We will provide access to bereavement counselling and support to all who need it.
• We will provide support for parenting and specified best practice in relation to prevention, recognition and response to post-natal depression.
• We will undertake media campaigns to promote recognition of depression and suicide risk, and will establish routes of action for concerned ‘recognisers’ of such problems.
• We will work to ensure that all Local Strategic Partnerships in the region have a clear focus on social capital in their Community Strategies, together with policies for maximising this.
• We will develop within the North East a clear focus on valuing and improving individual mental health that will inform all strategic and policy decisions.
• Measures and targets of ‘Gross Quality of Life’, Locus of Control, Social Capital, and Workplace Health-Improving Behaviours will be established for the region.
• We will establish formal agreements between Local Strategic Partnerships and regional bodies identifying appropriate shared funding for agreed collective goals for health and well-being.
• We will develop appropriate measures to allow publication of an annual regional progress report on social capital in the North East.

Potential areas of action for RAG consideration: How best to improve social inclusion? – What should be done about accommodation needs? – Physical health needs of mental health sufferers – Needs of migrants and asylum seekers – Action to support carers – Availability of talking therapies – Appropriate funding rates – Specific issues in early and later life – Linkage to worklessness action – Stigma reduction