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Welcome from the Mental Health Support Team at
Maple Primary School
Roopa Amlani
Trainee Educational Mental Health Practitioner.
Maple Primary School is linked with the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) and has a dedicated mental health practitioner.
The St Albans MHST sit within Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust (HPFT) NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Our team is made up of multi-disciplinary professionals, including Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), who are trained to deliver evidence-based interventions of guided self-help.
Aim and Ethos:
MHST’s provide an education-based early intervention and prevention service for children and young people (CYP) aged 5-19 years with emerging low-level mental health and wellbeing needs or behavioural difficulties. The service is 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, 52 weeks a year.
MHSTs in Primary Schools can help parents work through struggles with their child’s emerging anxiety/worry, and behavioural difficulties. They can assist in putting strategies in place and support with practical steps to better manage these challenges.
We work with school leaders to promote better mental health for everyone as part of the schools ‘Whole School Approach’. The MHST aims to embed supportive mental health practices into educational setting’s culture, working collaboratively and directly with educational staff, parents/carers and pupils to enable children to engage in looking after their emotional health and well-being.
We aim to increase the community’s awareness of mental health issues and promote and respond to emerging needs.
What do we offer?
We offer group and 1:1 support for parent/carers, usually lasting between 4-10 weeks.
We also offer workshops for parents/carers, staff and pupils. Our groups and workshops aim to support all young people and their networks to better understand and support their mental health and wellbeing.
We offer a group, called ‘Brain Buddies’ for children in Year 4 or above. This group aims to develop emotional understanding and regulation strategies. We also offer a drop-in on one lunch time a week, for children who would like to talk to someone about a worry. Other groups can also be arranged, depending on the needs of the children.
A low-intensity intervention means that there is a number of focused sessions, which can be delivered face-to-face or virtually. These interventions rely on a collaborative, goal-based approach, where the parent/carer is able to acknowledge the child’s difficulty and is motivated to talk about this and work toward change by applying skills/approaches in the home environment.
To be noted: some children may be better supported by alternative services. We work with your school staff to identify the most appropriate support, and this may not always be the MHST.
If you feel more immediate support is needed do not hesitate to contact your GP, SPA on 0800 6444 101 or 111 for advice and 999 in an emergency.
Interest in Support
Click the link below:
Maple MHST intro for parents expression of interest
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