WORLD Mental Health Day will be marked across Teesside with a series of events.

Tees and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust has teamed up with voluntary organisation partners and a local school to offer people the chance to learn more about mental health.

In Middlesbrough, a scheme to help patients learn more about their mental health condition was being launched at Berwick Hills library at 10am today.

The Books on Prescription scheme allows patients to be prescribed a self-help book that focuses on conditions such as stress, anxiety and mood swings.

In the town centre, staff from the trust's liaison psychiatry department will be on hand at Middlesbrough bus station to offer people advice and information about mental illness.

In Hartlepool, a senior nurse from the trust will visit youngsters from St John Vianney Primary School to discuss with them the negative impact that bullying can have on a person's self-esteem.

The nurse will also talk with the pupils about how mental illness is perceived by the general public.

This year's theme for World Mental Health Day is mental and physical health across the lifespan, focusing attention on the inseparable relationship between physical and mental health.

For further information about events or about mental health, visit the World Federation for Mental Health website, www.wfmh.org