here to help

Funded by the Department for Health and Social Care’s Suicide Prevention Fund, the Here to Help project aimed to address the mental health and suicide prevention needs of autistic people in the Tees Valley area.

Here to Help successfully addressed critical gaps in mental health support for autistic people. Specifically, Here to Help had a significant impact on raising awareness and providing support. Our training sessions were well-received, with over 1,730 professionals who may interact with autistic people, engaged. The combination of bespoke online resources and in person support led Here to Help to be selected as one of nine projects from across Europe in the Caritas Europa Social Innovation Festival 2025.

The project, led by SJOG Hospitaller Services in partnership with Middlesbrough charity, MAIN, was developed in response to alarming statistics indicating that a significant percentage of autistic individuals were at risk of suicide, with the North East having one of the highest suicide rates in the UK.

Over 12 months, Here to Help was engaged with over 78,000 times, and directly supported 1,085 autistic people and 204 family members through workshops and drop-in sessions. By March 2025, over 2,042 resources had been downloaded from the Here to Help website from the UK and beyond.

Here to Help successfully addressed critical gaps in mental health support for autistic people. Specifically, Here to Help had a significant impact on raising awareness and providing support. Our training sessions were well-received, with over 1,730 professionals who may interact with autistic people, engaged.

The combination of bespoke online resources and in person support led Here to Help to be selected as one of nine projects from across Europe in the Caritas Europa Social Innovation Festival 2025.

Looking ahead

There is ongoing demand for the support, training and resources which Here to Help has shaped. We are pleased to advise that this will continue for the next two years, through the support of the Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation.

As we begin to explore how Here to Help can support even more people, we’re excited to share that we have expanded our reach and will now be including learning disabilities as part of our focus. Our project team kindly ask that you continue to follow our progress and await updates via our social media networks.

We aim to re-launch the next phase of Here to Help in July 2025. Our web resource continues be a valuable resource:

Click here to visit Here to Help