The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust is a NHS Trust

NHS Trust

A National Health Service trust provides services on behalf of the National Health Service in England and NHS Wales.The trusts are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors, and is...

 that provides mental health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

, learning disability

Developmental disability

Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...

 and addictive behaviour

Behavioral addiction

Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on drugs or alcohol. Increasingly referred to as process addiction or non-substance-related addiction ) behavioral addiction includes a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences...

 services. It covers the 1.4 million people living in County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, the Tees Valley

Tees Valley

The Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...

 and North East Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. The trust's annual income is approximately £200 million, and the Trust employs about 5,000 staff who work from over 200 offices. The headquarters of the Trust are located at West Park Hospital

West Park Hospital

West Park is a modern NHS adult mental health unit situated on the north-western outskirts of Darlington. It was built to replace the dated facilies at the now demolished Winterton Hospital and the Pierremont unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital....

, Darlington

Darlington

Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...

.

The Trust was created in 2006 through the merger of two specialist health trusts; the County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust and the Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust. It was praised, in 2007, by the independent watchdog, the Healthcare Commission

Healthcare Commission

The Healthcare Commission was a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Health of the United Kingdom. It was set up to promote and drive improvement in the quality of health care and public health in England and Wales...

, for the quality of its services.