Good Mental Health and Resilience

A trusted adult is someone that you have a good relationship with. It is someone who you think has your best interests in mind and with whom you feel safe. Your trusted adult may be someone at school or it may be someone outside of school. You can have more than one trusted adult – indeed, at the start of the year, we asked you to nominate three. You have a right to choose your trusted adults

Your trusted adult:

• can talk to you about any concerns or worries that you have and help you to do something about them.
• could support you to talk to other people about your concerns or worries.
• should be someone that you have regular contact with.

While most students can maintain good levels of mental health through self-help and trusted adults, some need more focused and regular support. At The Hemel Hempstead School the first level of such support is provided by trained student volunteers known as ‘Mind Mentors’. Training is provided by the school’s Mental Health First Aider and therefore reflects the best in current national practice. Being closer in age to the students they are working with, these volunteers can relate well to them – in many cases, for example, they have experienced the issues affecting mental health themselves in the very recent past. In addition, as non-professionals, they can often build up a closer relationship with students which allow the latter to feel comfortable, trust and talk about issues which might not feel so comfortable with adults.

While most students can maintain good levels of mental health through self-help and trusted adults, some need more focused and regular support. At The Hemel Hempstead School the second level of such support is provided by an experienced and dedicated team of staff known as mentors. Students’ mental health is assessed at the start of the school year and those with ‘abnormal’ scores are high priorities for this level of support. Others in this category include students have who have had four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), those who have experienced domestic abuse and those at risk of self-harm. As a rule, students meet their mentor weekly during registration time with termly reassessment of their needs.

A Mental Health First Aider is a trained individual who can recognise the crucial warning signs and symptoms of poor mental health in young people and can guide a young person to the appropriate support. Please note that the Mental Health First Aider is not a therapist, counsellor or clinician. We consider the role to be analogous to physical health first aiders. Thus, the Mental Health First Aider acts as the first point of contact and advises an appropriate course of action, whether that be GP appointment, presentation to Accident and Emergency or referral to mentors and counsellors. Similarly, to physical health first aiders, the Mental Health First Aider would generally be seen in an emergency, but it is also possible to book appointments via Student Services

We have two fully trained, highly experienced counsellors on staff. They have weekly appointments with students who present with the most serious mental health needs. In some cases, it has not been possible to meet these students’ needs at lower levels of mental health support and, as a result, these students have been ‘stepped up’  In other cases, students are referred for counselling on the basis of specific needs which are appropriate to this level of support. We see the school counselling as an incredibly precious resource and, as such, it is reserved for those students are represent the highest priority for us in terms of their mental health needs. The counsellors are highly effective in reviewing and assessing these needs – students will continue on the counselling list as long as they require counselling but no longer.

Some students require support with mental health issues which go beyond what the school can offer. In these cases, a referral is generally made to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) by the student’s GP. In some cases, the school may make the referral. Students may also be referred to other outside agencies depending on need.