Investment to support school mental health teams in Hull

The Mental Health Support Teams is part of a wider partnership approach to offering early interventions for young people and are embedded in education settings across Hull. The service is aimed at providing evidence-based interventions for children, young people and their families who experience mild to moderate emotional wellbeing difficulties.

In year 2 of the Opening Schools Facilities Programme Active Humber and Early Help Education officers for Hull City Council met to determine how funding could support the mental health support teams and more importantly how being physically active could help the young people/students these teams were supporting across education settings in Hull. Through some previous work with Yoga Therapy Hull and Tristessa Moore it was agreed that providing yoga therapy sessions to young people being supported by the mental health support teams would be an additional layer of support for the young people and provide them knowledge and skills that they could take into their everyday lives for future support.

Over Years 2 & 3 of the funding 6 secondary schools were provided with weekly sessions. Over 100 young people benefitted from these sessions. The young people were identified by the school, these included:

• Young people with a Special Educational Need
• Young girls who struggled with their confidence
• Young people who had been bereaved
• Young people who have experienced significant trauma

Feedback in terms of how the sessions have supported these young people include:

• The sessions have provided some much needed calm and relax time in the student’s day/week.
• Some of our SEN students (including ADHD, SEMH, Autism) have benefitted greatly, helping them to focus, calming, use their energy in different ways, increasing their creativity, building up their confidence.
• Supported students to build their self-esteem and confidence
• Some students now feel more confident about exploring other activities on the PE curriculum
• Students WHO have experienced significant trauma have benefitted by having a safe space to be and have felt so comfortable/relaxed that they have been able to speak about some of their emotions that they struggle with.
• Our girls have been taught coping mechanisms and week by week they are becoming more involved and relaxed.

The sessions have also supported school staff, who have been actively encouraged to get involved in the sessions to support the sustainability of sessions continuing and the students being supported after the funding comes to an end. Staff have reported that:

• they have a better understanding of using coping mechanisms to support young people
• they have a greater understanding of how the brain works for neurodiverse people
• they have learnt more about yoga that they can incorporate some into lessons in the future
• they have also learnt skills that they are using in their every day lives to support themselves

Whilst the funding for the sessions have come to an end the schools that have participated in the sessions have all reported their staff have developed skills and knowledge that can be continued to be used to support all students within their settings, they have also been supported to be more aware and look after their own mental wellbeing and have been taught techniques and skills that will allow them to do this. Ultimately young people who have been supported by this funding have also benefitted from learning new skills and techniques that they can continue to use to support their mental wellbeing longer term.