A TOWN once dubbed the suicide capital of the country is working to rid itself of the tag.

Suicide rates in Darlington have begun to fall as measures to tackle the unenviable record take effect.

From 2001 to 2003, 53 people took their own lives, a rate of 14 suicides per 100,000 people, compared with a national average of ten per 100,000.

In some parts of the town, such as the North Road corridor, the figure was as high as 45 per 100,000, but overall the rate has now fallen to 10.2 per 100,000, much closer to the national figure of 9.5.

Health officials are pleased, but they warned against complacency and said a raft of further measures should further improve matters.

Sue Dixon, of Darlington Primary Care Trust, said a lot of work had gone into trying to reduce the number of suicides.

She said: "Overall the trend is down and while we are very pleased, there is no way we are going to become complacent as we still have a long way to go."

The latest figures put Darlington in line to meet Government targets to reduce the number of suicides by 20 per cent by the year 2010 compared with 1999.

The next step is to train staff in the town's walk-in centre, look at the treatment of anxiety and depression, improve access to counselling and put up signs at suicide spots in the town, urging people to seek help.

"If you can interrupt people's train of thought and let them know there are people who care, you can make a difference," said Mrs Dixon.

The Department of Health is also considering her idea of including supportive messages on the back of tablet bottles.

The primary care trust drew up a detailed action plan to reduce suicides in the town. This included staging a multi-agency conference and workshop, increasing crisis intervention services, issuing prescribed drugs, such as anti-depressants and pain-killers, that cannot be used to overdose and opening a hospital for mentally ill patients.

The trust also worked closely with the housing department, the police, the Samaritans and Darlington's drug and alcohol addiction service.

Earlier this month, The Northern Echo reported how Teesside was also winning its battle to cut the number of suicides.

It was reported that in 2002 there were 64 suicides across Teesside, in 2003, that had fallen to 41.