Emotional Well Being

Emotional wellbeing is one of the key areas of Medway Children’s Trust and is overseen by the Emotional Wellbeing partnership. This group consists of all the major organisations in Medway including children’s services, health services, voluntary organisations and the police that are working to highlight the importance of emotional health and where necessary provide advice, support and treatment to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people in Medway.

All children and young people have their ups and downs as they are growing up but with support from family and friends and others around them most cope well enough. Sometimes however things can get on top of young people and they can become depressed, withdrawn, isolated, find it difficult to concentrate at school, eating and sleeping may become affected and they may misuse drugs and alcohol.

These problems if they mount up can get in the way of young people’s mentally healthy lives and can affect their confidence and happiness. It is important therefore that there are services in place to support young people if they are concerned about their mental health.

Young people may want to get some advice about a problem or talk to somebody like a counsellor. This may be in school or at a youth centre or somewhere the young person feels comfortable. Sometimes if problems are more serious they may need to see a doctor or another specialist in CAMHS or substance services and occasionally they may need to spend some time in hospital for treatment.

The Emotional Wellbeing partnership wants to make sure these services are available, that they are the right services in the right place and that young people feel comfortable using them. Most importantly the partnership wants to make sure they are working well and that young people, their families, schools and GP’s are confident they will offer the help and support they need.

The priorities for this group are

1. An improvement in the mental health of all children and young people in Medway.

The group will do this by,

Implementing the recommendations of the Medway fundamental review of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the national CAMHS review.

Developing an integrated service to promote and respond to the emotional wellbeing of children and young people.

2. Reduce the incidence of alcohol and drug misuse among young people in Medway.

The group will do this by improving personal, social and health education (PSHE) regarding drugs and alcohol.

Outcomes the partnership wants to achieve:
· Children, young people and their families have early and timely access to information and support regarding their emotional wellbeing in universal settings such as education and health.
· A comprehensive CAMHS service with explicit referral criteria to include access to specialist services with emergency access 24/7.

· All staff working directly with children and young people have sufficient knowledge, training and support to promote their emotional wellbeing and to identify early indicators of difficulty.

· Children and young people with both a learning disability and a mental health disorder have access to appropriate child and adolescent mental health services.

· Care pathways for children and young people with other specialist needs including children who have physical impairments or illnesses, transition to adult services, looked after children and children who misuse drugs/alcohol.

· A reduction in under age drinking.

· Increase the number of drug users in effective treatment.

Chair: Sally Morris, Assisstant Director Commissioning and Strategy, Medway Council

For further information contact Ian Darbyshire Commissioning Manager for Emotional Wellbeing on 01634 334404.