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The Mental Health in Schools Team is an NHS service that has been introduced as part of the national plans to expand mental health services for children, young people and their families within the education setting. Working across Coventry and Warwickshire, we are here to provide mental health interventions, advice, and liaison with specialist services to help children and young people get the right support. We work closely with schools to develop their ‘whole school and college approach’ to mental health and wellbeing. Using evidence-based CBT treatment approaches for anxiety and low mood. This can be done in group or 1:1 settings, either face to face or virtually. This means that we can continue to work with young people during school holidays.

Base: (Access via school)
Directorate: Children's

Age: Ages 4-19 for those within a MHST school or college
Referral Criteria: Some Schools have a dedicated MHST. Access is via the mental health lead in school. We support young people who are experiencing low mood and a range of anxiety difficulties.

Hours: 8:00am to 5:00pm
Service hours: MHST operates between 8:00am and 6:00pm.

About us

MHSTs are sometimes also called Mental Health Support Teams.

The Mental Health in Schools Team is an NHS service that has been introduced as part of the national plans to expand mental health services for children, young people and their families within the education setting.

Working across Coventry and Warwickshire, we are here to provide mental health interventions, advice, and liaison with specialist services to help children and young people get the right support. We work closely with schools to develop their 'whole school and college approach' to mental health and wellbeing.

We support young people who are experiencing low mood and a range of anxiety difficulties.

We are currently based in schools in South Warwickshire, Coventry, Rugby and North Warwickshire

The team consists of qualified and trainee Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), Senior Educational Mental Health Practitioners, Specialist Mental Health Practitioners, Team Leaders, a Service Manager and Clinical Lead.

Between us we have a wealth of experience supporting children and young people with their mental health.

The Mental Health in Schools Team strives to provide a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ children and young people and their families.

Our service provides mental health interventions and support for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

How do we help?

The MHST's focus is to positively impact young people's mental health and wellbeing. We aim to do this by:

Using evidence-based CBT treatment approaches for anxiety and low mood. This can be done in group or 1:1 settings, either face to face or virtually. This means that we can continue to work with young people during school holidays.

We work closely with each school's identified Mental Health Leads (a senior member of school staff who has received specific training to take on this role) to support individual referrals and to complete regular audits of the school's mental health needs.

·We support each school in developing and maintaining a 'whole school and college approach'.

What is the Whole School Approach?

We work collaboratively with schools to deliver a 'whole school and college approach' which involves all parts of the school community working together to improve mental wellbeing.

MHSTs support the whole school and college approach in several ways: delivering assemblies, classroom-based sessions and workshops in schools covering a range of topics (mental health awareness, creating calm, building emotional awareness, mood boost and sleep hygiene).

The Whole School and College Approach is based around these 8 principles:

Figure 2 in Promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing

We also support schools to develop mentally healthy environments through staff training, support and policy development . Our team conduct school 'needs assessments' or audits in collaboration with Mental Health Leads to create an action plan to address identified needs throughout the school year.

What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a treatment approach which looks at the difficulties a young person is experiencing through an understanding of the links between how we think, feel and behave (what we do).

Understanding how these links affect the problem for the young person is important. CBT helps the young person to develop a toolbox of strategies and learn new ways of coping with difficult situations.

It is a collaborative approach, which means that young people are an active part of their therapy and will regularly take ideas or strategies from their sessions and practice them or test them out at home and at school.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a widely used approach in Mental Health. For further information, please see link below.

MHST are able to offer both high and low intensity CBT.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/overview/

What does low intensity mean?

Low intensity means treatment that uses fewer resources. This means that sessions may be shorter (usually 45-60 mins) or involve a smaller number (6-8) of individual face to face or telephone sessions.

Offering low intensity treatment first means we are able to:

offer psychological help to more young people
offer psychological help in a more timely way
offer early intervention, before problems build up

Low intensity interventions are:

often more convenient for the young people and families we support
based on evidence of effectiveness
based on a teaching skills model thus contributing to longer-term wellbeing

For examples of what difficulties can be supported through low intensity treatment from MHST please see our parent leaflet in the resource section.

What does high intensity mean?

As well as Education Mental Health Practitioners, each locality has a smaller number of senior low intensity (LI - CBT) practitioners and a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (HI-CBT) who work across all MHST schools in the area. Senior LI practitioners support the EMHPs and schools and are able to work with young people who may benefit from a few more sessions or who may be experiencing more complex difficulties.

High Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapists (HI-CBT) will typically work with young people for a longer period of time (usually between 12-14 hourly sessions), which allows a greater depth and 'intensity' of therapeutic input. HI-CBT is an evidence-based treatment approach and is part of the MHST offer for a number of different mental health presentations including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Health Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

HI-CBT therapists may also provide continuing treatment after low intensity interventions, if required. Sometimes, young people may be offered a low intensity intervention initially and then 'step up' to high intensity if that is felt to be beneficial.

Referral process and confidentiality

Each school's Mental Health Lead has received training in how to recognise mental health difficulties in the early stages and with support from the EMHP they can complete the process for young people to be referred to the MHST. A discussion should always take place with the young person and their family before a referral is made and consent requested to share this information with us.

We treat the sharing of information very carefully and confidentially. We only share information where it is helpful to do so and with consent. The only exception to this is if we need to share information to support the safety of the young person or others around them.

Once a referral has been received, the team will review the information and consider the next steps. This is often to invite the young person and their families to have a chat with us about the difficulties they have been experiencing (an assessment), so that we can decide together what support would be most appropriate. Sometimes, we decide that we might not be the right service for their particular circumstances, and we may make suggestions about where they would receive more appropriate help and support.

Contact us

Our contact method is through the Rise Navigation Hub: 0300 200 2021 - please ensure you ask for the MHST and they will take a message for us to contact you as soon as we are able to.

If you wish to discuss a referral to our service, please contact your school's Mental Health Lead.

If your school is not listed but you require early help or advice for a child or young person's Mental Health difficulties, please check out our Primary Mental Health Team's page at: cwrise.com/primary-mental-health for further information.

MHST for 16-18 year olds in North Warwickshire

Our North Warwickshire Mental Health Support Team works with 16 - 18-year-olds in colleges and sixth forms; expanding our reach to support mental health needs in educational settings. This service promotes good mental health and works directly with young people experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety or low mood using a CBT based approach, adapted for this age group. We may offer one-to-one interventions or small groups. If we are not the most appropriate service to meet the young person's needs, we will signpost young people to alternative sources of support (including adult mental health services) to best meet their mental health needs.

We support a 'Whole College Approach' to mental health, working collaboratively with the college or sixth form utilising resources to support young people's mental health through workshops for students, parents and college staff, drop-ins, coffee mornings, assemblies and event days.

Please note that our service takes referrals for individuals up to the age of 18 who have a GP in Warwickshire or Coventry. If you do not have a GP in this area, you can still access MHST for Whole College Approach activities, advice and signposting to other services.

There is a list of the schools and colleges that we are currently supporting on this webpage. You can also look at our 'Meet the Team' section to see the staff who are working in these areas. Please speak to a member of the school or college's well-being or safeguarding team who can send a referral to MHST.