Mental Health Support Team

The Mental Health Support Team in Schools 

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is a new NHS commissioned service working in our school. The aim of the service is to offer free early therapeutic interventions to help children and young people with mild to moderate common mental health difficulties such as anxiety, low mood and emotional dysregulation.

What MHST Can Offer

MHST provides support through:

- One to one sessions with an Education Mental Health Practitioner.

- Group work.

- Parent-led work.

- Whole school approaches to supporting mental health.

MHST Support Criteria

The support offered by the MHST is low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (LI-CBT). This is a brief, structured, and goal-focused intervention designed to support specific presentations. MHST cannot support young people where:

- There are lots of contextual concerns causing the emotional wellbeing difficulties.

- The difficulties are suspected to be related to neurodiversity rather than mental health.

- The difficulties exceed the remit of a low intensity intervention and require a more specialist service.

How can I get support?

A young person or parent/carer may request support within school. A School staff member may identify a young person in need of support. These requests/ observations can then be discussed with the Designated Mental Health Lead in School (DMHL) who can make a referral into MHST.