The dangers of failing to look after the mental health of young people are becoming all too obvious and most schools are now having to learn to manage the issue better themselves due to the lack of access to any high quality professional help and advice from local NHS services.
Unfortunately, the level of experience of school pastoral support services are seldom sufficient for the task and therefore the risk of failing to identify or manage serious issues have resulted in very poor and, occasionally, tragic outcomes for these most vulnerable children.
We have that expertise available at the click of a button – a team of five consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists and their multidisciplinary support team, all with huge experience and exceptional specialist skills.
However, we also understand that there is no money available – there never is until too late. Unfortunately, as schools all know, working with children means that the cost is considerably greater as the time involved is so much more when safeguarding issues and multiple agency input is required. (That being said, accessing these online is a considerable saving in time and money and a huge increase in convenience and we would always welcome the opportunity to talk to forward thinking institutions about what can be done with a magic money tree.)
Understanding the economic reality of running a school is why we have developed a variety of models for schools, including ones that allow you to access email advice and advocacy services for a minimal cost, thus giving your school access to our medical expertise and the risk management that comes with that, while not taking on the cost of managing serious mental health issues yourself.
Giving your staff access to such advice raises their confidence in dealing with issues themselves, especially when combined with access to the educational and training facilities around recognising, understanding and managing mental health issues in children that we provide.
We also supply a very economic mental health advocacy package. Letters from a consultant psychiatrists can open doors to local medical facilities and a knowledge of NHS service models can be as important as a medical opinion.
Please complete our enquiry form if you would like further information.