Mental and physical health of St Helens residents among worst in England, says report

The Thriving Places Index, published today by the national charity Happy City, assesses how well local authorities are doing at creating conditions to allow people to thrive.

The framework consists of a set of 48 indicators – chosen to represent the drivers of wellbeing – that use existing data from established national data agencies.

St Helens receives a score of 3.67 out of 10 for equality, 4.03 for local conditions and 4.45 for sustainability – the three main categories.

In the mental and physical health domain, St Helens scores 2.51, placing it in the bottom 10 nationally.

St Helens scores even lower in the mental health subdomain, with a score of 1.67 – the third worst in England.

The area scores 2.35 in the overall health status subdomain and 3.13 for mortality and life expectancy.

St Helens also scores 2.89 out of ten in the healthy and risky behaviours subdomain.

Marie Rimmer, MP for St Helens South and Whiston, said the health figures are "appalling".

She said the national shift by Margaret Thatcher’s government during the 80s away from manufacturing has been the main socio-economic factor that has dented St Helens’ prosperity.

“The North West and the North East are heavy manufacturing areas. We are now paying the price for it,” Ms Rimmer said.

“We never really recovered from that.”

Ms Rimmer said alternative treatments need to be looked at to treat people with mental health issues to get to the ‘route of the problem’.

“St Helens is a very high prescriber of anti-depressants,” she said. “We do have a drug problem and we have got a very big alcohol problem in St Helens.

“It’s quite shocking really, the health issues are appalling.”

In the equality section, St Helens receives a score of 2.97 for health equality and 2.93 for wellbeing equality.

It scores better for income equality, with a score of 5.11, pushing its overall equality score to 3.67 out of 10.

In terms of adult education, it receives a score of 2.84. Children’s education fares better, with a score of 3.94. The town also scores low for local business (3.23).

There are some positives in the report, with St Helens scoring high for community cohesion (6.16) and housing (5.81).

St Helens Council were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

Liz Zeidler, co-founder of Happy City, said: “Happy City’s Index puts the conditions for wellbeing at the heart, but equal importance is given to growing a more equal distribution of those conditions and ensuring they are delivered in a way that does not compromise the capacity for future generations to thrive.

“Our model is not for the faint hearted. It is designed to support those pioneers who really want to ‘measure what matters’ and ‘make what matters count’.

“It is a practical tool, that can be used today, to help leaders who want to ensure the sum of our work – in every sector – is a better life for today’s and tomorrow’s generations.”

The North West generally scores low on Happy City’s TPI.

Liverpool comes bottom out of 150 local authorities in the local conditions category.

Wirral, which ranks top for place and environment, is third from bottom overall for equality, one place ahead of Liverpool.

For a full break down of every area click here.