A Teesside NHS trust is sharing its mental health expertise with an Irish health organisation as part of a high-profile project.

Two consultant nurses from Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust returned from Ireland following their first week-long training visit to the Western Health Board.

The specialist mental health and learning disability trust has been invited to lead a training programme for the Irish health organisation, and, if successful, the Teesside trust could be sharing its expertise with other mental health organisations in Ireland.

Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust is one of the few trusts in the country to have appointed five consultant nurses, and the project is being led by two of them - Pete Melia, consultant nurse in forensic mental health and Ian Trodden, consultant nurse in adult mental health.

Mr Trodden said: "We have been invited in as external consultants to lead a training programme for 20 people working in a wide range of mental health services, from community to intensive care services. We are training them in how to use psychosocial interventions to improve the care of people with mental health problems."

The men are training staff to look at the psychological, social and biological reasons for a patient's mental health problem, and tailoring treatments to suit their needs, including medication and a range of therapies.

The Western Health Board is about to open a purpose-built mental health unit, and wanted to introduce new ways of caring for people with mental health problems to go alongside the new environment for patients.