SEMH Wellbeing Hub
Welcome to our students, staff, parents and carers.
We continue to add up to date links to this page which signpost self-help, support and other useful resources. We hope it helps to support you with young people’s mental health.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Wellbeing Hub
At Abbeywood, we know that mental health is an important issue for many young people and we would remind all students that their first point of call for support if they are struggling is their Tutor and Head of Year.
We regularly share strategies and signpost support for our whole school community to empower them to take care of their mental health and well-being. They can look out in tutor periods, assemblies, PSHE lessons, on Google Classrooms, social media, the school screens, toilet doors and posters as well as our website! Pop-up sessions with both Kooth and OTR are arranged over the school year and are available to all students.
The Wellbeing Hub opened as a referral based intervention to support those finding their SEMH needs difficult to manage themselves and when this is stopping them from accessing their full timetable.
Early on, a fabulous donation of £500 from FACs, enabled us to buy games, books, weighted blankets and an assortment of other bits to help build connection and social skills within the hub. Generous donations of bean bags, games, books and rugs have also gratefully been received from staff and parents. We have also built up our craft activities across the year and the students have enjoyed quiet activities like colouring salt to make memory jars, making bracelets, and painting.
We continue to develop our provision, and are planning to run drop-ins and support even more of our community.
Meet the SEMH team
SEMH Wellbeing Hub Lead - Sam Densley
TA Support - We are very lucky to have several TA’s that come up to support us in the Wellbeing Hub - Miss Bishop and Miss Pataki. They bring a wealth of skills and we look forward to getting to know them better.
Supporting Mental Health
We are all able to access the universal support available to us and this is the first thing we would advise you to do if your child reaches the criteria in school for Wellbeing Hub support.
Universal support is the help where you can self-refer, such as the GP, Kooth, Off the Record, Young Minds, The Mix, Harmless, Childline and other charities that support young people and their mental health. For family support, Caring for Communities and People can also be self-referred.
Further support can be accessed through school once these avenues have been explored.
Please see below for the links to these agencies.
https://www.otrbristol.org.uk/
Resources to support students and their parents and carers over the issue of self-harm (and other mental health concerns):
LifeSigns. This is a support group for those who self-harm, their friends and family. They offer a factsheet for caregivers about how to support a child who self-harms. They also have a helpful webpage for the child to read when they feel the urge to self-harm. https://www.lifesigns.org.uk/ https://www.lifesigns.org.uk/read-this-first/
CalmHarm. Calm Harm is a free app to help manage or resist the urge to self-harm.
Harmless is an organisation providing support and information about self-harm and suicide prevention. http://www.harmless.org.uk
YoungMinds is a UK charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. Their section on self-harm is extensive.
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-a-z-mental-health-guide/self-harm
Mind is a charity promoting mental wellbeing. They offer advice for friends and family supporting someone who self-harms. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-ofmental-health-problems/self-harm/for-friends-and-family/
Childline is a free helpline to support children and young people. Phone number: 0800
1111 http://www.childline.org.uk
YouthAccess is a free counselling network for young people.
https://www.youthaccess.org.uk/
TheMix is a support service for young people. They are available by email, website chat or telephone (0808 808 4994). https://www.themix.org.uk/
CAMHS – The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are the NHS services to support young children with emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties.
