Who we are:

Schools and other education settings play an important role in supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people and their families. They can promote good emotional wellbeing, support the learning of social and emotional skills, reduce the stigma associated with mental health difficulties, and spot potential difficulties early on to support children and young people to get the help they need.

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a government initiative to help increase children and young people’s access to support for emotional wellbeing and mental health. MHSTs are part of the national Children and Young People’s Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP-IAPT) programme. MHSTs are a resource in addition to the already existing support in any particular education setting.

What we do:

Most of our clinical interventions and associated work is undertaken directly in schools and educational settings. MHSTs have three main functions:  

1. To work in collaboration with education staff to develop and implement a Whole School Approach (WSA) to emotional wellbeing and mental health. This includes identifying priorities for WSA and supporting with the delivery of these (e.g. mental health awareness assemblies to reduce stigma, workshops for parents and carers, and supporting staff wellbeing).
    
2. To offer support and guidance to schools, promoting joint working with other services to ensure that children and young people are able to receive the support that they need. This may include training and consultation with education professionals, joined-up problem solving, liaison with other services and signposting.
    
3. To offer evidence-based, time-limited targeted support for difficulties such as low mood, worry and anxiety, low self-esteem/confidence, and to support understanding behaviour. This may be in a group or one-to-one. It may be with children and young people, or it may involve working with parents and carers.

What schools do we work in:

MHSTs are continually expanding across Southend, Essex and Thurrock. Please take a look at our current list of schools to see if your school has an MHST.