Ealing mental health support team (MHST) in high schools

Mental health support team (MHST) offer in high school

Each high school will have a named practitioner who will work in the school 1 day a week to provide early evidence-based intervention for children and young people presenting with mild-moderate mental health problems such as anxiety and low mood.

The named practitioner will meet with the designated school link worker at each school once a week to discuss possible referrals, update the link worker on existing cases and to discuss other interventions such as groups and workshops that may be helpful to the school population.

The named practitioner will be able to see 4 cases per day.

When the link worker brings referrals, the practitioner will discuss which are most appropriate and will signpost the link worker to more appropriate services when relevant.

For appropriate cases, the practitioner will have a small waiting list where cases are held until they have capacity. They will be seen in order of referral, unless clinical need dictates that a case needs to be prioritised.

If a group is planned, this will count as 2-3 cases (depending on the group and the amount of work that needs to go into developing and delivering this).

Each secondary school will have one training session a term allocated. The topic for this training session should be discussed with the allocated practitioner in advance so that they can prepare the material. Ideally this should be something that is not already offered by another service or provider in Ealing although there could be an opportunity for working jointly with other services.