Children's Mental Health

Children's Mental Health

Since March 2020, the world has been pretty crazy!

Some children have enjoyed being away from school, and others have really struggled. The coronavirus outbreak has kept us away from our family and friends. People have lost their jobs, homes and loved ones. The world is different and a bit weird.

Anxious, sad or scared feelings are to be expected. These feelings will gradually ease for most, but there are steps you can take to support children emotionally and help them cope with some of the problems they face.

At Hunslet Carr, we have lots of things in place to help support our children, both at school and at home.

Nurture sessions, daily 'Check-ins', friendship groups and a range of after school clubs are just some of the   things   we do on a daily basis to help our children with their emotional wellbeing.
Lisa Lilley leads on Nurture across school, and also supports a number of children on a 1:1 basis each day. Lisa plays a pivotal role in supporting children's mental health. She is highly skilled at building relationships with children of all ages - Children can ask to speak with Mrs Lilley via their class teachers.

If we feel one of our children needs a little extra help, we have two traded therapists within our Inclusion team, who are in school on a Tuesday and Thursday.

Gareth Hobson is an Art Psychotherapist and Christine Frost is a Play Psychotherapist. They work for an organisation   called Impact North. Gareth and Christine run weekly groups, 1:1 sessions and also provide supervision and advice to staff to help them best support our children.

Hunslet Carr is also part of the JESS Cluster where we can make referrals to a number of different professionals and agencies, such as counselling, parent support, youth work and MindMate.

If you feel that your child (or even yourself) needs some support with their feelings or emotional well-being, please ask to speak (or email) with Donna Bedlow (donna.bedlow@hunsletcarr.co.uk) who is our school SENDCo, Lisa Lilley (lisa.lilley@hunsletcarr.co.uk) who leads on Nurture and children's well-being or Andy Hinchcliffe (andy.hinchcliffe@hunsletcarr.co.uk) who is our school Safeguarding Lead.

Child in Year 6 and beyond can access support themselves through The Market Place who offer telephone support sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 3pm and 6pm - 0113 246 1659

Children in Year 6 can also access Kooth. Kooth is commissioned by the NHS to provide anonymous and personalised mental health support for Children and Young People.

If you are really worried about your child's mental health anyone under the age of 18 can contact the Leeds CAMHS Crisis Call Line - Tel: 0800 953 0505 - Open: 8:00am - 8:00pm, every day.

Details of other organisations that provide urgent support for children in a crisis can be found by clicking here

Below is some useful information on how to support your child's mental health at home.
Listen......
Regularly ask how your children how they are doing. This will help them get used to talking about their feelings and to know you'll be ready to listen if they need or want to talk. For some useful information about starting a conversation with your child about mental health, please click here

Support them through difficulties.....
Pay attention to their emotions and behaviour, and try to help them work through difficulties. It's not always easy when faced with challenging behaviour, but try to help them understand what they're feeling and why. Please click here for some really useful information on managing difficult   behaviour and emotions.

Encourage their interests......
Being active or creative, learning new things and being a part of a team help connect us with others and are important ways we can all help our mental health. Support and encourage them to explore their interests, whatever they are.
Although organised activities help us connect, unstructured time, where children can control what, why and how they play, is vital for good mental health. Please click here for a useful information resource on the benefits of child-directed play.

Take what they say seriously...
Listening to and valuing what children say, without judging their feelings help them feel valued. Consider how to help them process and work through their emotions in a more constructive way.
Please click here   for some useful resources for supporting children who are worried.

Useful Links