Keep Talking: The Hartlepool coffee shop helping people in town with mental health

LilyAnne’s, in Victoria Road, has been providing mental health support to people in Hartlepool to help save lives across town.

Anyone who is struggling can go to the coffee shop to have a chat and be signposted to a range of services.

Trevor Sherwood, project development manager at project partner LilyAnne’s, has told the Mail how the team managed to dissuade a young man who had been planning to take his own life after losing loved ones to suicide.

"One of the most recent cases that touched our hearts was a young man under the age of 25,” Trevor said.

"He had been building the courage to end his life because of his circumstances.

"One of his friends told him to come into LilyAnne’s.

"He had reached out to no one for support because he thought he won’t be listened to or that he would be judged.

"He believed the only way to cope with things was death by suicide.”

Having a chat with Trevor and the team turned the situation around and the young man has been receiving support and getting back on track.

Trevor added: "When you are looking into the eyes of a young man, who’s got his life ahead of him, he’s got a really good job, he’s not using drugs or alcohol and he feels like the only way in life is to end his life, I think that’s quite emotional and powerful.”

LilyAnne's is among the organisations who joined Hartlepool Mail mental health campaign Keep Talking earlier this year.

Our initiative aims to encourage people to speak up about their mental health and highlight the work of people and organisations in the town providing mental health support.

Angela Arnold, who is community navigator at LilyAnne’s, said: “I think at the moment, in terms of mental health support, there is a lot, but there could always be more. There should always be someone there.

"There’s lot going on with the mental health support sector at the moment. We are all coming together collectively to work together to see how we can make it more accessible to everybody.”

To access LilyAnne’s support, email [email protected], call (01429) 728041 or visit the coffee shop in Victoria Road

Keep Talking: Where to access mental health support in Hartlepool