A COUNCIL has awarded a contract for a Community Mental Wellbeing service to Lancashire Mind.

The decision by Blackburn with Darwen Council a competitive tendering exercise.

The contract runs from April 1 for three years, with an option to extend it until March 2025.

Professor Dominic Harrison, borough public health director said: “The importance of addressing mental wellbeing as a central strand of a comprehensive approach to mental health is now recognised internationally.

“This builds on the understanding that mental wellbeing is more than the absence of mental illness and as the World Health Organisation has outlined, is a state ‘in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community’.

“Both health and social care commissioners now face a challenge in re-focusing commissioning strategies from services primarily focused on illness to include those that prioritise the promotion mental well-being and prevention.”

Cllr Damian Talbot, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s wellbeing boss, said: “This is a very important contract, perhaps particularly so in the current crisis caused by coronavirus.

“Lancashire Mind is a well respected organisation in this field.

“The Blackburn with Darwen Council recognises its role in improving the mental health and wellbeing of all borough residents.

"It is something it takes very seriously and will do whatever it can to improve it.”

The decision was taken after the council drew up a revised mental wellbeing framework.