North Tyneside Connect Mental Heath Support Team

North Tyneside Council has been working together with partner organisations to develop a model to support the emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Strategy sets out our ambition for the next five years, during which time we will be working together to:

• develop resilient children, young people, and families
• ensure easy access for children, young people and families to get the right mental health support at an early stage from universal services
• improve access to specialist mental health services for those children and young people who are at high risk of poor mental health 

We all know that children and young people may face additional barriers to their education including mental health concerns, and we want to ensure that all young people have support and that their families, schools and other professionals are able to provide the right support.

The Connect Mental Health Support Team works with 38 local schools to deliver low and moderate intensity interventions to support pupils with low mood, anxiety and poor self-esteem. 

By working with our communities, schools, parents and carers and young people the service aims to encourage early treatment and prevention to decrease the number of children and young people requiring long term mental health support. This is done by providing information, advice, guidance, and support.

The team supports schools to develop their whole school approach to emotional wellbeing and signposts to other relevant services to ensure the needs of children and young people are met in a timely way.

The link below contains a  wealth of advice and information in the following sections;

• The Connect Mental Health Team
• Recognising and Supporting Mental Health in Children
• Supporting Children's Mental Health
• Self Care/Support for Parents and Carers
• Anxiety
• Low Mood and Depression
• Resilience
• SEND
• Relationships and Bullying
• Sleep, Stress and Relaxation
• Transitions to a new school
• Social Media
• Bereavement
• Self Harm
• LGBTQIA+

Within each section are links to advice and information, videos, articles, courses and helpful contacts. 

Connect Mental Health Team Advice and Support  link

World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day was was an opportunity to think about how good mental health for everyone is promoted. The theme suggested by the World Foundation of Mental Health is ‘Mental health is a universal human right’. Many organisations are using this theme to encourage people to talk about mental health and for adults to take opportunities to have ‘Tea and Talk’, 

Below you will find a selection of resources that might be useful.

A ‘Tea and Talk’ pack of ideas for adults can be found here:  Tea & Talk for World Mental Health Day | Mental Health Foundation

My Self Care plan (Primary)   - Anna Freud Centre experts and young people, ideas on self-care strategies that work for them.

Public Health England School Zone:

• Self Care Sessions for Y6 and KS3/4 that explore self-care techniques to support physical and mental wellbeing.
• Self Care Lesson plans for KS1 and KS2.
• Worry  Using peer-to-peer discussion, videos and activities, students will identify what worry might feel or look like and describe different actions that a person can take if they are worried, for Y6 and KS3/4
• Physical and Mental Wellbeing lesson for KS2

Zones of Regulation

At Benton Dene Primary we follow a whole school, Zones of Regulation approach to support our children by acknowledging their feelings; recognising that it is okay to have feelings in the different 'colour zones' and to support children to talk about and regulate their emotions.

A summary of the Zones of Regulation approach is set out below; if you would like any further information please see the link below (which contains information about Zones of Regulation in a home setting) or contact school to discuss this further.  

https://zonesofregulation.com/