Mental Health matters

I wrote a passionate piece on Linkedin recently about how some schools are negatively impacting teenagers mental health.  It absolutely breaks my heart and drives everything we do here at Red Bird.

I also did a parents’ webinar on this last week – the replay is here if you want to see it.

There seems to be three main stages of mental health support that we deal with on a daily basis at Red Bird and Blue Squid, our alternate provision in Cambridgeshire. Here’s our experience and the support we find effective.

Low-level anxiety

This level is quite frequent and can be both triggered easily and sorted relatively easily too.  This happens when nerves turn into something stronger, an on-going situation is keeping anxiety at an unreasonable level or hormones have heightened what was a manageable state of nerves to something more concerning.  Your child may struggle to sleep, be sad or mad, have a change in personality or low-level self harming (biting fingers or finger nails for example). Things can usually be resolved through talk, reassurance and a hug and a monitoring of the situation.  At Red Bird, a smile and some personal attention goes a long way.  Checking in also helps us to spot when things are not quite right.

Time to talk to school

If anxiety starts to take hold, things can get tricky at school.  This may look like bad stomachs on a Sunday evening, reluctance to get up or a refusal to go to school.  If your child has a shift in mood or attitude towards a teacher, subject or g]school generally, it’s worth contacting the school to see if you can nip things in the bud.  If the stress is actually the school environment, some changes could be made to accommodate your child and make it a better place for them to learn.  The ‘Every Child Matters’ slogan is still alive in most schools and teachers generally will do their very best to support your child.

When more is needed

School isn’t for everyone.  Some kids need something different because the busy and relentless school environment is not good for their mental health, and frankly, nothing is more important than that.  External agencies such as coaches, therapists and CAMHS are life-changers for some children.  Some will need more – a complete withdrawal from mainstream school – either in the home environment, in an alternate provision like Blue Squid or a school specifically set up for the needs of your child.  This can seem like a huge decision and removing your child from mainstream school is a big step, but it is not hard with the correct support and I haven’t met anyone yet who regrets the decision, because it is the right one for their child at that time. If you need support with this or just want to chat it through, please get in touch or here’s good old BBC Bitesize’s guide https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfctcxs

SUE

Owner of Red Bird Tutoring