Shropshire awarded for mental health work with children and young people

Shropshire Council’s Public Health team were recognised nationally this week for its mental health work with children and young people in schools across Shropshire.

Shropshire’s Targeting Mental Health Support (TaMHS) programme, Think Good Feel Good, was awarded 5th prize for its works practice to ensure that professionals and schools working with children and young people have the necessary skills and knowledge to support and nurture mental wellbeing and resilience.

The TaMHS programme was shortlisted because the judges liked the approach and it focused on child health of all ages, which is a key focus of the report.

The awards were presented at the annual Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Conference: Public health in a cold climate: melting hearts and minds with evidence’ hosted by FPH and Royal College of Nursing on 14-15 June in Brighton. Shropshire was one of just 5 local authorities out of 31 entries, that was awarded and recognised for their work in mental health.

Shropshire’s Targeted Mental Health Support is a universal resource for schools and people working with children to develop emotional and mental health resilience. The scheme is delivered through primary and secondary schools across the county and aims to develop a whole school approach on emotional health and well-being through the delivery of an evidence-based training programme

The Think Good/TaMH’s programme has now been used as a case study illustrating good practice in the Better Mental Health For All: a public health approach to mental health improvement published this week by FPH. The ground-breaking report about public mental health, makes the case for improving mental health for everyone and preventing mental health problems. The report is supported by the FPH awards to share best practice in public mental health

Councillor Karen Calder, Cabinet Member for Health and Chair of Shropshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board said:

“One of Shropshire’s Health and Wellbeing Boards key priorities is to promote, protect and improve our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded and nationally recognised for the mental health work we are undertaking with children and young people in schools.

“Good mental health enables children to play and learn, develop a sense of right and wrong and make and maintain positive relationships. It is not uncommon for children and young people to experience mental health difficulties.

“Our Targeted Mental Health support in schools, supports children and young people with their emotional health and wellbeing. Children who are mentally healthy are able to develop psychological, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.  I am so pleased that we have been acknowledged nationally for this work. This is a true testament to the work and collaboration of our officers and partners.”

For professionals and volunteers working with children and young people looking for further information contact tamhs@shropshire.gov.uk.

If you are a young person or if you know a child or young person going through a difficult time in their life and looking for support, contact Shropshire’s COMPASS on 0345 678 9021 or visit http://www.youngminds.org.uk/

For further information about Shropshire’s COMPASS click here

Further information

 Think Good Feel Good provides a range of tools, which schools offers as whole school approaches, through smaller groups or on a one to one basis. Contact your school to see how they are delivering Think Good Feel Good.

The TaMHS programme objective is to ensure professionals and volunteers working with children and young people are given the necessary knowledge and skills to

• support and nurture positive emotional health in CYP
• ensure wellbeing & resilience within their settings
• feel confident to identify the early signs of emerging mental illness in CYP

The programme offers

• Staff training – focus on raising awareness, equipping professionals with knowledge, skills and targeted interventions.
• targeted workshops in settings.
• developing supportive relationships with key groups of professionals working with children & young people
• embedding the necessary pathways & supporting information into training sessions
• ensuring effective signposting to other agencies and resources to ensure a continuity of sharing best practice and learning.

The training increases the confidence and knowledge base of staff enabling them to recognise early signs and symptoms of need, provides practical examples of how to respond to the emotional needs of young people, as well as tips and strategies on what to do and say following identification of need.

The work is supported on a multi professional basis by input from educational psychologists, primary mental health workers and school nurses. Evaluations found that the programme reached 84% of Shropshire schools and there were positive findings in relation to knowledge, confidence and improvements in pupil attitudes, anxiety and feelings.

Better Mental Health For All: a public health approach to mental health improvement is the work of the FPH’s Mental Health Committee in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation. Public Health England supported the project financially, which enabled the FPH to commission the Mental Health Foundation’s involvement and support for production. It also enabled the FPH to launch the inaugural Public Mental Health Award.

This report focuses on what can be done individually and collectively to enhance the mental health of individuals, families and communities by using a public health approach. It is intended as a resource for public health practitioners to support the development of knowledge and skills in public mental health. It presents the latter from the perspective of those working within public health, giving valuable interdisciplinary perspectives that focus on achieving health gains across the population.

Public mental health is fundamental to public health in general because mental health is a determinant and consequence of physical health as well as a resource for living. A public mental health approach is concerned with promoting mental wellbeing, preventing future mental health problems and with recovery from mental health problems. The Faculty of Public Health has published this resource to encourage a proportionate universal approach with a focus on the promotion of mental wellbeing and on high level support for those at risk of poor mental health and mental health problems. In this way the resource complements recovery and prevention approaches.