Mental Health Support Team

A note from Miss Goodgame:

MHST involvement at Queen Emmas

The MHST provides a range of support services tailored to meet the diverse needs of our school community. This includes one-to-one emotional support for pupils, group sessions focusing on social skills, resilience, and managing emotions, and whole-class interventions that promote positive mental health strategies. The team also works in collaboration with teaching staff to ensure that mental health is embedded across the curriculum and school culture.

At Queen Emma’s, the MHST has is actively involved throughout the year. This year they have delivered one-to-one sessions with children to support their emotional needs, run individual workshops with parents, and held larger parent sessions focused on common challenges such as anxiety and emotional regulation. The MHST workers have also met regularly with teaching staff to offer tailored advice and practical strategies to support pupils in the classroom. Their presence has had a positive impact on our whole-school approach to mental well-being.

If you are interested in finding out more about the work the MHST do and the support they can offer for families at Queen Emma, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Infomation from the Mental Health Support Team 

Who we are

Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) are a new NHS service offering mental health support to children, young people, and their families in education settings. In Oxfordshire we cover approx. 60% of schools. Each practitioner will be in their allocated school every week. The staff in the MHST are trained in delivering cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) which helps children and young people feel more resilient to cope with anxieties and low mood. Low-intensity CBT practitioners are equipped with evidence-based tools and interventions for supporting children and young people with certain mental health difficulties.

 

What we do

We work with new and developing mental health needs. This is about the impact the mental health difficulty is having on the young person's life. For example, if it’s mild anxiety it might affect the person in one or more areas of their life (e.g. school), but not every day.

 

We offer support for the following:

  • Generalised Anxiety
  • Specific Phobia
  • Separation Anxiety
  • School Avoidance
  • Social/Friendship worries
  • Behavioural difficulties

 

We can offer

We work with parents of children from Reception – Year 5. We work 1:1 with the children in Year 6.

We would normally offer appointments in the school setting, such as 1:1 work, group work or parenting groups. Children and young people must be attending school for at least some of the week and be willing/able to attend sessions in at school. We are unable to work with children and young people who are at risk of harm from themselves or others and/or young people and their families who are receiving support from the child protection services. We can work with families receiving support from the Team around the family, family help teams or any other of the local children's social services.

 

Referral Consultations

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) offer consultations with school staff preferably prior to making a referral. This is to ensure that children, young people and their families are not sitting on waiting lists for a service that might not meet their needs, and/or alternative offers of support are explored.

 

Whole School Approaches

We work collaboratively with schools to support and develop the “Whole School Approach” (WSA) to promote positive mental health and wellbeing. Whole School Approaches can include: Assemblies on Good Mental Health, Staff Training, Themed talks for parents on common mental health problems, Psychoeducational workshops, and Themed Coffee Mornings.