The South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust has launched a dedicated mental health website in early February 2026 to help people in Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland find mental health support more easily. The digital portal (https://www.stsftmentalhealth.nhs.uk) acts as a single point of contact for residents to find information about local services and how to access them. By bringing these resources together, the Trust aims to make it quicker for patients and carers to locate help without having to search through multiple different websites.
The website includes pages for services such as Talking Therapies and support for both children and adults. It also lists contact details for a range of local teams and, for some services, provides self-referral routes that allow people to sign up directly without first seeing a GP. Not all services accept self-referral — some require a professional or Single Point of Access (SPA) referral — so users are advised to check each service page for the correct referral route.
The Trust developed the new hub after feedback showed mental health information had been fragmented across different hospital and provider pages, which could be confusing for users. The site is available 24 hours a day and is intended to serve as a starting point for anyone looking for guidance or community therapy. It also signposts urgent and crisis support, and directs people to the appropriate specialist crisis teams or to NHS 111 where needed — noting that region-wide specialist crisis services are delivered by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). In an immediate life‑threatening emergency, people should call 999.
The update forms part of a wider programme by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust to improve how it delivers care across the South of Tyne area. By focusing on easier online access, the Trust hopes to reduce ‘digital friction’ and shorten the time it takes for residents to find the right local health services, although no operational performance changes (for example, measurable reductions in waiting times) were provided in the launch materials.
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