Supporting Mental Health And Wellbeing In Schools
esSupportingmentalhealth andwellbeing inschoolsBrand guidelines14
IntroductionOver 50% of mental illnesses start before theage of 14 and 1 in 10 children and young peoplehas a mental health disorder. Schools are on thefrontline when it comes to supporting childrenand young people’s mental wellbeing. Staffworking in schools are ideally placed to recogniseand respond to early signs of mental healthdifficulties in children and young people.This booklet aims to support all staff workingin school settings to understand how best tohelp the children and young people in their care.The booklet covers a range of mental healthconcerns, describes signs you might recogniseand offers straightforward and practical guidanceabout what to do if you areworried about a child or youngperson. It explains how schoolstaff can support children andyoung people by identifyingmental health problems and bymeasuring and monitoring themental health and emotionalwellbeing of their oked after childrenLow moodSelf-harmEngaging with familiesMentalization in the classroomMeasuring mental health andwellbeing in schools
What isanxiety?While many children and young people worry about schoolor home circumstances from time to time, around 1 in 10experience anxiety severe enough to make it hard for themto get on with the things they want to do in life. This maysignal an anxiety disorder. Children and young people may feelanxious in particular situations, such as speaking in class orsocialising with peers, and may want to avoid these scenarios.They may find themselves worrying a lot and not beingable to stop. They may also experience physical and visiblesymptoms, such as panic attacks.2.Stay calm butsupportive andtry not to getdrawn into theiremotions. Ithelps if you aresupportive butstay practical.3.Instead of reassuring the child or youngperson that nothing bad will happen, askthings like ‘what has happened in thissituation before?’4.What can school staff do to support a childor young person who experiences anxiety?1.The best way to help childrenand young people dealingwith anxiety is to find waysto face feared situations.Help plan ways for them totest out their fears graduallyand set specific goals (e.g.speaking in class at leastonce a week).Help the child or young person thinkthrough what they learned about theirfears and about themselves (e.g. didtheir worry come true, did they cope?).Teachers can help pupils to rate theiranxiety levels on a scale of 1–10, andnotice that when they face their fearedsituation repeatedly the anxiety levelgoes down.5.6.Praise and reward small(and big) successes whenthe child or young personfaces their fears. It can helpthem if you remain positive.We’re all different. Remember thatanxiety can come and go, and that whathelps one person may not work foranother.
What isattachment?An attachment bond refers to a relationshipbetween a child or young person and theirprimary caregiver that is formed in the early yearsand is thought to have a long-term impact ondevelopment and growth.What can school staff do tosupport secure attachment inchildren and young people?1.Undertake training in attachment theory to help you respond tochildren and young people’s needs. Children and young peoplewith insecure attachment tend to underachieve at school, find itdifficult to manage their emotions, and may be less willing to takeon challenges.2.3.4.Identify children and young people with greaterattachment needs. They may be unfocussed,disruptive, controlling, withdrawn or destructive.Often these challenging behaviours are their waysof coping and protecting themselves.Talk to your pupils about how they are feeling. Childrenand young people are often very aware of their ownfeelings but may not be able to express them.A secure attachment helps children and youngpeople feel safe at times of need. When caregiversare not able to provide sensitive, consistent andloving care, a child or young person may develop aninsecure attachment to them. This early insecuritycan affect their ability to learn and to formrelationships with other adults and with peers.5.Engage with other adults who are involved inthe child or young person’s life, whether that’sa parent or carer, grandparent, social worker orother professional.Help build children and young people’scapacity for self-regulation, resilience andconfidence. This could be through play, art,physical exercise and friendship building, aswell as through classroom learning.6.Value your input as a significant adult in the childor young person’s life, with the potential to be asafe haven and secure base for them.
What is a lookedafter child?A looked-after child is a child or young person inthe care of the local authority. Most looked-afterchildren live with foster carers, with a smallernumber living in secure units, children’s homes orhostels. Some children and young people are lookedafter because parents are struggling to cope, andothers have been removed from the family homedue to significant risk of harm. While looked-afterchildren are more likely to experience mentalhealth difficulties than their peers, it is important toremember that not all looked-after children will havea mental health problem.What can school staff do tosupport the mental wellbeing oflooked-after children?1.2.3.4.5.6.Avoid stigmatising children and young people or makingthem stand out. Teachers need to be very sensitive andshould not assume that everyone in the school, includingtheir peers, knows that they are looked after.Treat children and young people as individuals. Notall looked-after children will have had a traumatic earlyupbringing. A school’s response should identify and respondto children and young people’s individual needs.Trust is very important. It is important not to label childrenand young people because of their behaviour or previousexperiences. Remember you may be one of very few adultsin their lives that they feel they can trust.Be aware of the risk factors. Looked-after children are fourtimes more likely than their peers to have a mental healthdifficulty. The more risk factors a child or young personhas been exposed to, such as poor housing, poverty andmaltreatment, the higher the likelihood of significant delaysin cognitive and emotional development.Children and young people may misread certain situationsand emotions. For example, if a teacher’s expressions arevery serious, some pupils may interpret this as threateningand react in a disproportionately hostile or aggressive way.Teaching emotional literacyaround social skills can bebeneficial, especially if thisis part of the class lessonplan, and not just for specificchildren or young people.
What do wemean by lowmood?Low mood can meanan absence of feeling,irritability, lack of pleasure,and/or lack of motivation.Most people haveexperienced this at times.However, low mood meansthat people feel this waypersistently. Doctors definelow mood as feeling this wayfor over two weeks.It is not always easy to spot low mood. Signs includechanges in behaviour and relationships with friendsand school staff, becoming more withdrawn andfluctuating attendance. Low mood may be relatedto challenging home circumstances, bullying ordifficult peer relationships.What can school staff do to supporta child or young person who isexperiencing low mood?1.2.3.4.5.Ask the child oryoung person howthey are, and letthem know thathow they feelmatters to you.Express concern but ensure they don’t feel as thoughthey are being judged for feeling this way.Arrange to ‘check in’ with the child or young person abouthow they are feeling in a few days’ time. As well as helpingto monitor the way the child or young person is feeling,this will show that you take how they feel seriously.Think about which staff members the child or youngperson feels the most comfortable with; they may be bestplaced to offer support.Share your concerns with the pastoral care team. It maybe appropriate to consider referring the child or youngperson for counselling. However, it is important not toassume that they want or need counselling. Take a leadfrom the child or young person as to what would be helpfulfor them – this may involve discussing with them the typesof support that are available.
What isself-harm?3.Make a plan. This might be as simpleas making another time to listen, orit might be making a referral to childand adolescent mental health services(CAMHS). What’s important is that youand the child or young person discussand, ideally, agree the plan.4.Self-harm usually means cutting or injuring oneselfdeliberately. It gives a visible sign that something is‘not OK’. A child or young person may self-harm tofeel more in control, to help them cope with negativefeelings, or to punish themselves.5.What can school staff do to help a childor young person who is self-harming?1.2.Say something. Doing nothing is theworst thing you can do – talking about theproblem won’t encourage more self-harm.Listen. It may take a fewinvitations to talk beforethe child or young personfeels able to risk sharingwith you. The mostimportant thing you cando is offer to listen.Share. Speak to colleagues,to CAMHS professionals foradvice, and to the pupil’sparent/carer. Explain why youare doing this and give thechild or young person choicesabout how you might tell aparent/carer.Act. Do what you’ve agreed.Let the child or young personknow what you have done andwhat you haven’t managed todo yet, and why.Remember Although wanting to tell a child or young person to stop self-harmingis understandable, this is often less helpful at the beginning. It’smore useful to show concern for how the child or young person isfeeling.Most self-harm isn’t linked to suicidality but if a pupil tells you thatthey have thoughts about wanting to die it is important you sharethis information with the pastoral care team. A referral to CAMHSwould be appropriate in these circumstances. If you are worriedabout a child or young person’s immediate safety, call 999.
Why is familyengagementimportant?Research suggests that the engagement of parents/carers has a bigger impact on a child or young person’sacademic learning than any other factor, including thequality of the school. By bringing parents/carers andteachers together, it is possible to provide a child oryoung person with a trusting circle of adults who willsupport them.What can school staff do toencourage family engagement?Introduce non-stigmatising opportunities for collaborativeinvolvement of parents/carers in a child’s learning. The multi-familygroups in schools approach brings parents/carers, teachers, childrenand young people, and mental health professionals together in schoolsettings, with the aim of helping to change and improve the childrenand young people’s emotional wellbeing and behaviour. This helpschildren and young people to be more settled and better able toengage with teaching and learning opportunities. A family group allowsparents/carers to share experiences and ideas with others who mayhave struggled with or suffered from similar difficulties to their own. Ithas been shown that changes initiated in the group transfer very wellinto better behaviour and learning performance in the classroom.What is a Multi-Family group andhow is it run?.Multi-family groups are set up and runby a member of the school staff and asuitably qualified psychologist, socialworker or mental health professional.Six to eight families meet weekly inschool with the two group leaders.Children and young people’s progressis monitored daily against emotionalwellbeing or behavioural targets andevery six weeks overall progress ismeasured against goals, such asimproved attendance, behaviour andindependent learning.A family group has a clear structurebased on targets, planning, action,reflection and transfer.
What ismentalization?Mentalization means trying to see things fromsomebody else’s point of view. The key question toask is ‘what is it like to be you?’ Mentalization is not aspecialist skill and research suggests that being ableto see things from the pupil’s perspective is a keyprinciple of good teaching. Mentalizing is particularlyimportant when you are concerned that a childor young person is notachieving as well asthey might, or is notenjoying school.When a child oryoung person isnot thriving atschool as well asthey might, it maybe helpful to try tounderstand what itis like for them tostruggle comparedto their peers.?How can school staff mentalize inthe classroom?1.Empathise. If yoususpect a pupilin your class hasworries which theyare not talking about,you could begin aconversation withthem by sayingsomething like‘sometimes it seemsthere is a lot on yourmind. Maybe thingsthat you worryabout?’2.3.When a pupil is struggling with a task, as well assupporting them, make sure that you show genuineinterest in the person and how they are feeling. Forexample: ‘Sarah, it seems as though you find this a bithard’ or ‘tell me how you are finding it?’ rather than‘how are you getting on with your work?’Be open to discovery about their thoughts andfeelings rather than expressing certainty about them.
What is mentalwellbeing, and whyshould schoolsmeasure it?Schools are important settings for supportingchildren and young people’s wellbeing. Schools maydecide to measure mental wellbeing to:.Get a snapshot of pupil mental wellbeing across theschool population.Identify individuals who might benefit from targetedsupport.Evaluate the impact of the whole-school approach,as well as targeted approaches, to supportingmental wellbeing, finding out what has worked welland what has worked less well.What should school staff do tomeasure and monitor wellbeing?1.Mental wellbeing is not simply the absence of mentalillness; it is a broader indicator of social, emotionaland physical wellness. It is influenced by a range offactors, including a child or young person’s family,their community and school environment, theirphysical health and their social and emotional skills.Mental wellbeing can be defined as feeling good,feeling that life is going well, and feeling able to geton with daily life.Choose the right measure. Measures are tools (such asquestionnaires) that can be used to collect informationabout wellbeing across a range of areas. Choosing the rightmeasure to collect the information you need will help you tomeet the objectives of your measuring/monitoring exercise.2.3.4.5.Introduce the measures to your pupils,explaining why they are being asked to completethe measure, who is being asked to complete itand who will see the information.Think about where the measure will becompleted, ensuring that pupils feelcomfortable and have privacy.Think about how you willrespond to risky issues such asself-harm or suicidal thoughts.Have a plan in place for recordingand using the data.
Schools in Mind is a free network for school staff and alliedprofessionals hosted by the Anna Freud National Centre forChildren and Families. We provide a trusted source of accessibleinformation and resources that teachers and school leaders can useto support the mental health and wellbeing of their whole schoolcommunity.The network shares academic and clinical expertise regardingmental health and wellbeing issues for schools, and enablesmembers to access: Termly events, newsletters, trainings, and resources Ideas to support school staff mental health and wellbeing Opportunities to take part in ground-breaking researchFurther informationFor free sign up, further information and access to Schoolsin Mind accompanying resources (e.g. online multi-familygroups in schools training, mental wellbeing toolkit, and expertsupport videos) please visit www.annafreud.org or contactschoolsinmind@annafreud.orgAnna Freud National Centre forChildren and Families12 Maresfield GardensLondon, NW3 5SUTel: 020 7794 2313
mental health problems and by measuring and monitoring the mental health and emotional wellbeing of their pupils. 1. Anxiety 2. Attachment 3. Looked after children 4. Low mood 5. Self-harm 6. Engaging with families 7. Mentalization in the classroom 8. Measuring mental health and wellbeing in schools Contents
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