Mental health charity helping tackle Cumbria's high suicide rate

Based in Workington, the charity offers one-to-one counselling, drop-in sessions and family support.

Figures from Public Health England and NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group

Chairman Dr Brian Campbell said: “People say it must be lovely there, but if you don’t work in the nuclear bubble, there are issues. If you don’t work at Sellafield you have got a low-paid job or no job.

“We spend a lot of our childhood getting used to the limitations on our physical health. We almost do it unconsciously. I’m not sure we adjust the same way to our mental health.

 “If we weren’t creatures of emotion, we would be robots. Even the bad emotions are there for a purpose, like fear. It’s not pleasant but it’s there to protect us.

“Often our common mental health problems get a bit out of kilter and instead of working as they should for us, we find we’re working for them.”

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Dr Campbell wants people to be aware of factors that promote good mental health, including sleep, diet and exercise.

“Try and get good sleep patterns. Of course sleep is a thing that is easily interrupted. It becomes a pattern so often if someone’s off sick, they sit up half the night, stay in bed half the day.

“Diet is not rocket science – if you eat a very healthy diet your body is going to be. There’s a huge amount of research that says even a relatively small amount of exercise has a huge impact on mood.”

Visit Mind in West Cumbria on Facebook or go to mindinwestcumbria.org.uk