Social, emotional and mental health refers to children and young people with additional needs who have difficulties with managing their emotions and behaviours. This can be affected by the environment, difficult life experiences and attachment.

Some children and young people may struggle to communicate emotions verbally and can use their behaviour as a way to share feelings with the people around them. This behaviour can be challenging to those around them or may also present as withdrawing/avoidance.

Understanding the social and environmental context can be useful in identifying triggers for different emotions. This might be recognising physical sensations associated with different emotions, recognising triggers, identifying when and how to use emotion regulation strategies and building their self-esteem.

For children and young people who struggle to understand their own emotions, experiencing intense emotions can be frightening. Reassuring children and young people by normalising their experience of emotions can support them with feeling safer.

The child or young person may present with needs at home and/or school. These may include:

• Increase in frequency of behaviours that challenge
• Becoming more withdrawn
• Easily distracted
• Changes in appetite (eating more or less than normal)
• Changes in sleep (sleeping more or less)
• Avoiding particular situations
• Heightened emotional responses
• Increase in irritability
• Increased reporting of physical symptoms (headaches, stomach aches) which are medically unexplained
• Difficulty communicating emotions
• Reporting of low mood/anxiety/panic attacks
• Reporting of thoughts of self-harm or suicidal thoughts
• Increase in social and interpersonal difficulties
• Substance misuse

There are lots of ways you can try and support a child or young person struggling to manage their emotions and behaviours.

Some of these strategies include:

Following a routine

• Allow them to set clear boundaries and routines
• Discuss any changes in routine so they have time to prepare
  
  

Making time for wellbeing

• Allocate a calm or safe space
• Try relaxation techniques – for example, breathing techniques, imagery, meditation and mindfulness.
• Encourage wellbeing skills – including a healthy diet, good sleep hygiene, regular exercise and spending time in nature.
  
  

Exploring emotions

• Use scales by asking them to rate their mood from 1 to 10 as this can be helpful if they struggle to articulate emotions
• Try the zones of regulation approach - which can help with articulating emotions verbally
• Use words and pictures to explore emotions, to assist with the development of emotional literacy
• Use body mapping to link physical sensations with emotions to develop their understanding and recognition of them
  
  

Behaviour

• Praise and reward them for appropriate behaviour
• Give them opportunities for positive social interactions such as turn-taking and sharing
• Demonstrate behaviour that shows patience, respect, good humour and calmness
• Record difficult or significant behaviours in order to carry out an ABC analysis
• Carry out an individual risk assessment

 

Refer them to a specialist service

If there are any concerns regarding the child or young person's speech, language and communication skills you can refer them to the speech and language therapy service.

Mental Health Support Team (MHST)

The Buckinghamshire MHST supports young people who have emotional well-being difficulties. They provide evidence-based therapeutic support on both an individual level and in groups to help young people, parents and carers.

Some schools will have access to Mental Health Support Teams who can provide support. MHST’s are based in identified schools in Buckinghamshire, and there is further planned expansion of teams across schools in the county. Current schools that have access to MHST’s are listed on their website.

The Family Support Service Link Worker

Your Family Support Service school link worker will be able to discuss the needs of the child or young person you're concerned about and help identify the most appropriate support to seek for their needs.

There is a range of support which could be accessed including:

• Supporting the school to deliver early support.
• Offering direct support to the child or young person through the FSS Level 2 offer, which includes wellbeing matters (7 to 11 years) or youth groups which cover topics such as stress, anxiety and low mood or confidence and self-esteem.
• Level 3 support which includes direct work with the whole family.

Further information can be found on the Family Information Service website or through direct discussion with your FSS link worker.

CAMHS

CAMHS help children and young people up to 18 who are finding it hard to cope with everyday life because of difficult feelings, behaviour or relationships.

You can use their Single Point of Access (SPA) for referrals and access to the Psychological Perspective in Education and Primary Care (PPEP) training catalogue.

Youth Enquiry Service

The Youth Enquiry Service offer free and confidential support, information and counselling to young people (13 to 25) in the High Wycombe area.

 

Apps

The following apps are all free and may be useful to recommend to young people:

• For Me App: get advice and support on topics such as school and exam stress, through to personal issues, such as self-harm.
• What’s Up? is a free app utilising some of the best CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more.
• Moodtrack Diary: create your own mood diary to track thoughts and feelings.
• CALM: relax with Calm, a simple mindfulness meditation app.
• Kooth: free online counselling until 10pm daily for young people aged 13 plus.