Thought-full

We work closely with the Mental Health Support Team (MHST), known as Thought-full, the West Sussex Mental Health Support Teams in Schools service. MHST offer support and interventions to students with all aspects of mental health and emotional wellbeing.

To find out more about Thought-Full Click Here.

The Thought-Full team also provide a variety of helpful information videos on their YouTube page.

Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) - Katy Woods -sendco@oaktreeprimary.co.uk

We support schools in 3 ways

1. We support the senior mental health lead (SMHL) in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school approaches to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
2. We provide one to one evidence-based interventions in schools for mild to moderate mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
3. We give advice to school staff and liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools are an important strand of the Government’s 2017 Green Paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’.

In West Sussex we call our MHSTs 'Thought-Full', a name chosen by children and young people. The service is part of the strategic vision for the development of children’s mental health provision across Sussex.

In September 2023 Thought-Full expanded from 6 teams working in Chichester, Bognor, Worthing, Mid-Sussex, and 2 Crawley sites, to a service of 9 teams with the addition of sites in Horsham, Littlehampton West Worthing and Adur. Launch events were carried out to welcome new schools to the programme.

Each team is commissioned to work with a reach of 7000 to 8000 pupils in primary, secondary, special and alternative settings.

To access our support speak to the SMHL in your school or email us on thought-full@westsussex.gov.uk.

Thought-Full is not an emergency service. If you feel you need urgent support contact the Sussex Mental Health on 0800 0309500 (available 24 hours, 7 days a week). If you or your child are at immediate risk of harm or require medical attention phone 999 or visit your nearest local accident and emergency department.

One-to-one, targeted support

As part of core function 2, we offer short-term (4 to 10 sessions) interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate difficulties. Referrals are made through the SMHL for each school. Our interventions are based on cognitive (managing difficult thoughts and the behaviours they lead to) or behavioural ideas (considering changes to behaviours that may keep the difficulty going such as  avoidance or withdrawal) and can be delivered 1:1 or in groups.

These interventions rely on a collaborative, goals-based approach. It is therefore important that the young person acknowledges they have a difficulty, and that they are motivated to talk about and work on this.

Thought-Full can support children and young people with:

• anxiety difficulties including phobias animals, vomit, agoraphobia, separation anxiety, social anxiety, school avoidance and excessive worry (this does not include obsessive compulsive disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder)
• sleep difficulties related to poor sleep routine, behavioural problems, anxiety-based night-time avoidance behaviours, or problematic thoughts or worries at night
• poor eating patterns or diet affected by and/or affecting mood (not eating disorders), low mood, depression and low self-esteem
• common behavioural difficulties (4 to 8 years only)

Parent and carer involvement

We believe that the parents are crucial to the good mental health of their children and whilst services can offer support for a period, it is the family home that is the consistent factor in shaping a child's wellbeing. To support this, we work with schools to provide parent support sessions, training and information.

When working one-to-one with a child or young person we also strive to involve parents/carers to varying degrees, depending on the age of the child. This is because you are in the best position to support the implementation and reinforcement of the strategies we teach in sessions when at home with your child.

You are also best placed to encourage and support the completion of any home practice tasks set from these sessions.  If it is assessed as more appropriate, for which it is more commonly with adolescents, we may work directly with your child, involving you with their permission.

With younger children, we may work solely with you in order to achieve the best and most effective outcomes for your child.

From time to time we also consult with parents/carers as we feel it's important to have the voice of service users. If you would like to be involved email thought-full@westsussex.gov.uk.

Other Sources of support: