RESIDENTS of North Cumbria who suffer from mental health issues have been handed a lifeline to help them find employment.

The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Employment Service, run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), supports people who are being treated by the Trust’s Community Mental Health Teams to find, or stay in, paid work.

Many of those people are unable to access the internet or a laptop - tools that have become vital for successful job-hunting.

The service has now been granted £3,240 to provide laptops on loan to those they help to make sure they can access online job applications and interviews.

John Bolland, Service Lead for the Individual Placement Support (IPS) Employment Service, said: "We hope this pilot will be a pioneering way of helping to end the cycle faced by some of the people we support, where they don’t have the money to purchase a computer or a good internet connection, but because of that they can’t get a job to get the funds they need."