TranslateMental Health Support Teams
Providing early intervention mental health support for children and young people aged 5–18 in schools and colleges
Hull Mental Health Support Teams
We work together with NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, Hull Health and Care Partnership and Hull City Council to deliver Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) which provide early intervention mental health support for children and young people aged 5–18 in specific schools and colleges in Hull. The teams, provided by our Trust, have been fully operational since 2022 and currently support seven secondary schools, twenty-one primary schools, four special schools and two alternative provisions in the East, West and North areas of Hull.
The MHSTs work across education and healthcare and provide consultation to support schools to identify and manage issues relating to mental health and wellbeing, as well as delivering high quality evidence based interventions for children, young people and families who experience mild and moderate needs, and can request specialist support or signposting as necessary.
The Mental Health Support Teams are integrated into the already well established city wide Hull Thrive model and compliment the many excellent teams and services out there to further enhance the early help and intervention offer.
Subscribe to the Hull newsletter here Hull Mental Health Support Teams Newsletter (humber.nhs.uk)
East Riding Mental Health Support Team
The East Riding of Yorkshire have also been successful in securing two MHST’s; working with the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, Humber & North Yorkshire Health & Care Partnership and East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
The Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) have recently completed their training at the Universities of Northumbria and Sheffield. The MHST has hit the ground running working with 14 placement schools across the local area covering Beverley, Bridlington, Withernsea and Holderness. The teams are now looking at 47 settings across those target areas, with another team planned for later in 2024.
Subscribe to our newsletter here East Riding Mental Health Support Teams Newsletter (humber.nhs.uk)
What will the Mental Health Support Teams look like?
Each MHST consists of two Senior Practitioners and four EMHPs. There will also be professional/clinical leadership across both teams to support education settings.
The MHSTs have three functions:
- Delivering evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues to children, young people and families
- In partnership with education settings, the MHSTs support the Mental Health Leads to further develop and deliver their whole school approach and providing timely advice and support
- Liaising with external specialist services to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education
Why are Mental Health Support Teams important?
The Government’s response to the Consultation on Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper and Next Steps (2018) ensures areas that are successful in the Green Paper bid funding go further for children and young people who are showing early signs of distress, so that they are always able to access the right help, in the right setting, when they need it.
The MHSTs support children and young people, providing extra capacity for early intervention support within school and college settings.
We know that early intervention can prevent problems escalating and have major societal benefits; therefore the Green Paper (2018) aims to put schools and colleges at the heart of efforts to intervene early and prevent problems escalating.
Watch the video to find out what these EMHP’s have to say about their experiences in the role.
Hull Mental Health Support Team - The journey so far (youtube.com)
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