The Mental Health Support Team in Schools (MHST)

This Pathway helps children and young people in Devon (excluding Plymouth) who are experiencing mild to moderate common mental health difficulties (anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties etc).

Who are we?

The Mental Health Support Team in Schools (MHST) is a new NHS service commissioned to work with a number of schools across Devon and Torbay and in the community . We offer early intervention to help children and young people with their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

We offer individual and group Low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Li-CBT) evidence based interventions. We additionally work in schools to support their ‘whole school approach’ to mental health by offering:

• Workshops and training to children, families and education staff
• Consultations
• Mental Health Ambassador Programme
• Mental Health Audits and much more.

What we do

We work with children and young people, aged 5-18, and their families who are experiencing mild to moderate common mental health difficulties (anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties etc). Our traffic light tool details the types of symptoms we do/don’t work with.

This is an early intervention service that provides clear and evidenced based Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Li-CBT) interventions focused on guided self-help.

We additionally work collaboratively with schools to establish a ‘Whole School Approach’ to mental health & wellbeing, enabling mental health to be valued and become an intrinsic part of school culture. We offer schools:

• We offer an audit and mapping service for schools to explore their current mental health and wellbeing strategy and set goals to further embed mental health within their school environment
• A wide range of workshops on a variety of mental health and wellbeing topics which can be delivered to students, staff and parents, for example, Exam Stress, Understanding Mental Health, Bullying, Anxiety etc
• Assemblies, stands at sports days/open evenings
• Universal and targeted groups (some of our universal group offers will require referrals- such as for our Decider Skills intervention for students and our Timid to Tiger groups for parents)
• ‘Time to Reflect’ which is a 1-1 or group consultation space for staff to explore mental health and wellbeing concerns about particular students in the school
• Regular meetings with the schools Designated Mental Health Lead (DMHL) to develop the school’s mental health strategy
• Develop cross county networking events for MHST engaged schools
• Mental Health Ambassador (MHA) training to improve student participation within the school’s mental health policies.

The MHST and CWP team will predominantly focus on the first two quadrants of the I-thrive model:

• Getting Advice – Meeting with CYP/ Families and through Whole School Approach interventions offer advice and support in relation to emotional wellbeing and mental health (MHST)
• Getting Help – offer evidence based, goal focussed brief interventions for CYP in regard to emotional wellbeing and mental health (MHST and CWP).