Mental Health and Wellbeing

Your Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental health is the social and emotional wellbeing of individuals and communities.

Having good mental health does not mean you feel happy all of the time but rather it’s a state of overall wellbeing.

Having good mental health enables us to:

• Enjoy life
• Cope with and ‘bounce back’ from stress and sadness
• Be able to set and fulfil goals
• Have the capability to build and maintain relationships with others.

Many people try hard to maintain their physical health but forget to look after their mental health which is just as important.

Some things that help to keep us mentally healthy are:

• a good night's sleep
• good nutritious food
• drinking plenty of water
• regular exercise and fresh air
• talking to friends and family
• mindfulness and meditation.

If you are feeling sad  or unable to cope with every day problems, please talk to someone.  Below is a list of useful services which may be of some help to you.

Free listening services

These services offer confidential advice from trained volunteers. You can talk about anything that's troubling you, no matter how difficult:

• Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans, or email: jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours
• Text "SHOUT" to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line, or text "YM" if you're under 19

If you're under 19, you can also call 0800 1111 to talk to Childline. The number will not appear on your phone bill.

• Mental health support | Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Mental Health Foundation
• Mental health - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
• What can I do to help myself cope | Mind, the mental health charity - help for mental health problems
• Next Step Cards
• stem4 - supporting teenage mental health
• YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds
• Signs That a Child Is Suffering From Mental Health Issues | NSPCC
• Togetherall

Here at Audley Junior School the following adults are qualified in Mental Health First Aid: Neil Holden and Melanie Payne. Our children are taught about mental health and well-being as well as being provided with useful strategies to maintain healthy minds as well as healthy bodies.

Just as we remind pupils to eat a healthy 'Five A Day' to keep their bodies healthy, we also, as a school practice the 'Five Ways to Wellbeing' to build simple strategies to support mental health. 

Click on the link below to access some recorded meditations which you may find useful.

KOOTH           

Kooth offers young people a range of early intervention mental health support to children and young people. Kooth works with schools and professionals across over 90% of the UK.

It has services that are accessible 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This includes one to one text based sessions with experienced counsellors and wellbeing practitioners run from midday to 10pm on weekdays, and from 6 -10pm at the weekend. Appointments can be booked in advance or accessed via a drop-in text-based chat. Kooth also provides a fully safeguarded and pre-moderated community with a library of peer and professional created articles. And there are discussion forums too. All content is pre-moderated and age appropriate.

Kooth covers many topics on the website including relationships, LGBTQIIA+, exam stress, anxiety, eating difficulties, self harm, suicidal thoughts, body image, social media, bullying and family worries. All of these subjects affecting young peoples’ mental health are presenting issues that Kooth and other mental health providers see from all age groups. Kooth is commissioned by the NHS and clinically approved for children from the age of 10, and is the only digital mental health provider to hold a BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) accreditation across the UK.

 www.kooth.com