Mental Health and Wellbeing
This page summarises many resources that might be useful to you and/or your family, whether your child requires additional specific support or you simply would like to access further tools that could be helpful. Please click on the links to view items in more detail, or to print out materials.
Please also check out our weekly newsletter where we share information about current local events, workshops and support groups that are on offer in the area.
Emotional well-being & mental health links for resources in Suffolk
The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is an early-intervention service that supports children and young people, their families and school/college communities with mild to moderate mental health difficulties. Please speak to Mrs Thomas if you feel a referral would be useful for your child.
Whether you're experiencing mental health issues, are worried about someone, or want to know how to stay mentally well, the Emotional Wellbeing Gateway is the place to go for families and professionals to explore mental health support in Suffolk.
The Source Information, Advice and sources of support for young people in Suffolk
Suffolk local offer: Information, advice and support for anyone concerned about the emotional wellbeing and mental health of a child or young person aged 0 to 25 years.
Emotional based School Avoidance
You may not be aware that you can self-refer your child to the school nursing service. They can offer support and advice on topics such as relationships, eating, sleeping, behaviour, and feeling sad or angry. Please follow this link to the self referral page or speak to Mrs Thomas for advice.
The School Nursing service also offer a range of videos and workshops to support parents and carers, including the Solihull approach, a free to access online parenting course.
Emotional well-being & mental health links for resources
The Anna Freud centre is an excellent charity that provides advice and support for families as well as professionals. Their website contains a wealth of resources for how best to support a child or young person that is experiencing poor mental health or wellbeing.
CAMHS This is a fantastic website that has free downloadable books, weblinks, apps, videos and contains resources around emotional / mental health. Topics include managing anxiety, controlling anger, stress, self-esteem, sleeping difficulties, ADHD, ASD, mindfulness and depression.
Young Minds – Children and Young people’s mental health charity. There is also a parent’s helpline.
Parent videos to provide mental health support for children and young people
Anxiety
The NSFT have a whole host of useful online workshops for parents. This one is pre-recorded and is about supporting young people with anxiety.
Child line have a range of resources to help us support children, including those that experience sleep difficulties.
Fight Flight Freeze – A guide to Anxiety for Key Stage 2 primary school children.
The owl and guard dog brain – For Key Stage 2 primary school children:
Bereavement
Cruse https://www.cruse.org.uk/get-support/
Eating issues
NSFT pre-recorded workshop on supporting children with eating difficulties.
Fantastic source of resources around problematic eating and eating disorders
Information on ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake disorder)
Mindfulness
https://www.meditationinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mindful-Listening.pdf
https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-for-children-kids-activities/
Resilience
Building resilience in young children
Self Esteem
Zones of Regulation
The ZONES is a concept designed by Leah Kuypers, a licensed occupational therapist, to help pupils develop self-regulation skills. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management, and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation. The ZONES are designed to help the pupils recognise when they are in different zones as well as learn how to use strategies to change or stay in the zone they are in.
Autism and ADHD
If you have concerns that your children may be displaying Autistic traits and require some additional support, please speak to your GP and Mrs Thomas for further information on the current process for assessment in Suffolk.
https://www.autism.org.uk/ An excellent website that provides advice and guidance for people with Autism.
A comprehensive list of services in Suffolk that support children and their families with Neurodevelopmental disorders including Autism and ADHD.
Support resources launched by the BBC
The BBC have launched Headroom, a page designed to offer support across many different areas from their Mental Health Toolkit through to inspiring feel-good films and music, podcasts and tips. Whether it is everyday tips, sounds to relax your mind, strategies to cope with parenting or films to get you talking, the site is designed to help you look after yourself and your loved ones. It is a great resource to dip in and out of and we are very pleased to share the link with you below- simply click on the graphic to visit the site.
Click here to visit the BBC website
More recently the BBC have also launched Tiny Happy People, a site filled with tips from experts and other parents to explore simple activities and play ideas to support early development. You can choose age-appropriate activities and gain advice about developmental milestones. Simply click on the graphic below to visit the site
Click here to visit the BBC website
At any given time up to 40% of adults and 50% of children (this rises to 80% with a SEND diagnosis) have difficulties with their sleep. Yet in a recent survey, almost 60% of adults felt there was a lack of support for sleep issues. Sleep problems can leave people feeling isolated and lonely.
Our free helpline is run by trained sleep advisors, many of whom are specialists in working with SEND. We can talk to young people directly, or parents (we can also talk to adults, including older people, about their sleep issues).
The helpline is open 5 times a week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings 7-9pm, and Wednesday mornings 9-11am. The number is 03303 530 541.
You can read more here: https://thesleepcharity.org.uk/national-sleep-helpline/
CONSIDER THE '5 WAYS TO WELL-BEING'
