Community safety (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)

Those at risk

  • Crime is a health issue. It affects the health of our communities and individuals within them directly and indirectly. Crime against health service staff, patients and property diverts resources away from health service provision. Reducing crime benefits health services.
  • Crimes that impact directly on health include: violent crime, dangerous driving and drug and alcohol abuse.
  • The effects of being a victim of crime can be both immediate and long-term.
  • It has been estimated that the NHS spends over £1 billion per year on treating the victims of crime in addition crimes against staff, patients and NHS property divert resources away from patient care.
  • There is a clearly established relationship between mental illness and violence, whether against the self or other people. A significant proportion of young offenders, sentenced or remanded in custody, have been found to have some degree of mental health disorder.
  • Crime is associated with social disorganisation, low social capital, relative deprivation and health inequalities. The same social and environmental factors that predict geographic variation in crime rates may also be relevant to explaining community variations in health and well-being.
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