Helping Hands: Bridging Mental Health Support and Education/Employment in North Tyneside

Children and young people’s mental health needs are increasing across North Tyneside, as they are across the country, yet this programme has been running for 17+ years to support young people and bring together holistic support for their needs. There had been a real concern that there were increasingly long waits for CAMHs and young people were not having many peer to peer interactions. 

Becky and Helen and their colleagues run five groups across North Tyneside which provide support for young people who are struggling with their mental health and emotional wellbeing e.g low mood, anxiety, stress. Young people can attend the groups for as long as they want to, which is a crucial premise of the approach to ensure there is ongoing support. 

The team meet with the young people on a 1:1 basis to provide low level interventions when it is required. Many of the young people are isolated, with low attendance at schools and often home-educated and missing out on opportunities to engage with their peers. 

Referrals come from CAMHs, GPs, social workers, schools and other statutory organisations and charities. The sessions are one hour every fortnight and there are activities over the holidays. Part of the sessions is to normalise worries and explore that there are a range of emotions that a young person may feel over time.

The team also support the young people to do practical activities like getting on the bus, or booking in / attending appointments, and providing them with advocacy at different appointments. Other examples of one-to-one work include helping young people put into practice the strategies that CAMHs have suggested to them, e.g. CBT techniques, graded exposure to different situations, supporting around transition points, e.g. starting GCSE study, moving from school to college/6^th form or employment and supporting young people to actively re-engage in education or employment again. 

Many young people have been able to grow in confidence and experience new and different things, for example, a young person joined the sessions not wanting to talk or engage with others and then after joining the group went on to go to university and have a year abroad. Another young person has become trained in youth work and was an ambassador for Stonewall. Other young people have gone on to access training and employment opportunities or live independently but we are aware progress and success is individual and relevant to each person. For some young people being able to engage in a conversation, use public transport or order themselves a drink can be a real achievement. 

The young people have designed different resources such as a bookmark on how to develop and maintain conversations, a leaflet called ‘Help Yourself’ which contains a range of helpful apps, websites, helplines and this has been printed twice with 10,000 copies each time being distributed to Middle and High Schools across North Tyneside. They also made a film about things to consider when attending a GP appt to discuss mental health. 

Public Health, North Tyneside Council have continued to fund this work over numerous years as have the Alex and William De Winton Trust.

• Flexibility in the timeframe for how long the young people can engage with the service.
• Maintaining a young person led approach which takes the interventions at the pace they need and responds to their needs. 
• Making the most of the expertise of the different team members to identify who can best work with the different young people relevant to their needs. 

Becky Rowe, Phoenix detached youth project

Email: [email protected]

Helen Heslop, Employment & Skills, North Tyneside Council 

Email: [email protected]