Children and Young Peoples Mental Health in Suffolk

As part of Suffolk’s Local Transformation Plan, which sets out how it would improve children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health by transforming services, changing the landscape in which services operate and upskilling the workforce, a new selection of funded learning and development opportunities has been launched for those working to support our children and young people with their emotional and mental wellbeing.

Extensive engagement work with stakeholders, including parents/carers and young people, have said that those working with children and young people would value training and support to enable them to be more confident and skilled in responding to issues relating to emotional wellbeing and mental health. A package of learning and development resources has therefore been launched to support the workforce in carrying out their work with children and young people; Included in the workforce is everybody who works, lives with, supports or cares for children and young people in Suffolk – including young people themselves. 

These resources include:

• Suffolk Needs Met Introduction to Mental and Emotional wellbeing – A three hour introductory course which provides an understanding of what it means to be emotionally healthy, why it is important, and how emotional health supports physical health. Provides tools to help us have our emotional needs met in a balanced way, which can inform the way in which we support children and young people.
• Mental Health First Aid training – a two day training course which will help people to spot the early signs of a mental health problem, feel confident when helping someone who is experiencing a problem, and have the skills knowledge and understanding of how to effectively support those experiencing emotional or mental distress
• MindEd E-Learning – a recommended suite of e-learning modules which will provide knowledge to support the wellbeing of children and young people, to identify a child experiencing or at risk of a mental or emotional health problem, and contribute to providing confidence to act on your concerns
• Online resources – Web-based resources to further your understanding of mental and emotional health, and supporting children and young people with issues relating to these areas

This programme will be developed over time to reflect the broad needs of our workforce, families/carers and children and young people, but in general aims to provide a platform of learning that can be accessed at different points over time and reflected upon in practice to support the emotional wellbeing of our young people.

The online resources and e-learning recommendation have been put together for all to have the opportunity to improve their understanding of emotional and mental wellbeing, and the training is intended to provide practical tools and knowledge for those working directly with children and young people.
 
Training is accessible via www.suffolkcpd.co.uk using the Multi-Agency icon on the home page. And all other relevant information relating to learning and development can be found HERE.
 

New digital resources for children and young people

An online chat support service, Ask the 4YP Expert has also been launched, with experienced youth workers from Suffolk charity 4YP offering confidential advice every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5  to 7 pm until the end of summer 2017.

Anyone aged 12 – 25 years can go online and ask a 4YP expert about any issue that is affecting them.

The Suffolk-focused website The Source has been refreshed to provide clinically assured information, advice, guidance and resources for young people to help them with issues that matter to them, including anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders. The site has been developed to provide clear explanations to address what concerns young people and signposts them to support and further help.
 
We highly recommend that all staff working with CYP sign up and undertake this valuable training and signpost to parents/carers including CYP.

For details of the refreshed Transforming Care Plan, read it HERE.