Our Child and Young Persons Team has 4 Mental Health practitioners who all have a range of experience and expertise. We want to offer the best possible support, advice and information regarding young people’s mental health.

In everything we do, we aim to;

  • Respect diversity, promote equality, and improve access to support
  • Reduce stigma and discrimination
  • Promote good mental health and wellbeing to everyone as a right.
  • Empower young people to support themselves, and educate that recovery is possible
  • Work collaboratively with partner and external agencies to support young people to the best of our ability.
  • Identify common themes/trends/risk factors for poor mental health and work to address these.

Support for Young People

One to One Support 7 – 25 Year Olds

WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan)

This is a one-to-one support which is an evidenced based programme to support Children and Young People (CYP) to learn healthy and practical strategies to cope with difficult feelings, thoughts and behaviours the most common areas that we support with are:

  • Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders,
  • Low Mood,
  • Self Harm behaviours,
  • Self Confidence and Self Esteem
  • Any other Mental Health difficulties.

We offer approximately 10 sessions to each CYP who are referred to us and we meet with CYP in their school environment, at the Mind Jersey town office or occasionally out in the community when appropriate. The WRAP helps to educate CYP about Mental Health and Mental Health difficulties. It supports with helping identify protective factors, identifying challenges and stress,  and focuses on supporting CYP to cope with difficulties. The WRAP supports with improving a CYP’s general wellbeing, promotes good Mental Health, and gives them tools to cope and manage with any  future change. The WRAP is a personalised and practical tool that can be tailored to the needs of any CYP that we support. Children are referred to us for the WRAP from parents, teachers, social workers, youth workers etc and can also self-refer.

Please see our referral link here.  link

One of our Team Members supports CYP who are awaiting CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) Intervention. This support uses the WRAP as a framework but also incorporates other creative interventions. This Support aims to reduce the need for a Young Person to access CAMHS. Please be advised that the referral’s for these young people can only be accepted via a CAMHS Clinician.

Decider skills

What is Decider Skills?

The Decider Skills are proactive Mental Health skills to help Children learn strategies’ to cope with difficult emotions, thoughts and behaviours. The Decider Skills course use approaches from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)  which teach Children to recognise how they respond at times of difficulty and aims to support them with understanding more about their emotions and behaviours. This course also helps with confidence building, self esteem and empowers children to learn new ways of coping with difficulties. We also teach some mindfulness and relaxation within the content of the course. We have a maximum of six children on each course. This course will usually take place at our Mind Jersey town office and will always run outside of school hours. We also offer a parent session for each course to help the parent(s)/Carer(s) understand what we will be teaching so that they can continue to support the child with the skills that they have learnt. We receive referrals from parents, schools, family support workers, mental health professionals etc

For more information about Decider Skills, please visit the website – The Decider Skills | The Decider

We offer three different Decider Skills courses for this age range, Please see information on each course below.

Decider Skills for Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) 

We have seen a large increase in our referrals for children with a diagnosis of ADHD. From this, we have a bespoke course for children with ADHD, which is facilitated in a specific way to meet their needs and supports them to engage in the leaning in an ADHD friendly way. The aim of this course is to help children with ADHD learn ways to cope with difficult thoughts, feelings and emotions, and they can support each other with understanding more about how ADHD might affect them if it feels appropriate. We mainly receive referrals from parents and CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) for this course.

Decider Skills Course for Children with ADHD with their Parent(s) Together

This is a similar course to the one above however the Parent(s) attends with the child. This course supports parents to understand their child’s experience, and to learn strategies together which work well for the child. The number of courses that we run is determined by need. Referrals come from Parents, schools and CAMHS. We also run a specific course for Parent(s) who have a child with ADHD – Please see our Parent Support section on our website for more information about this.

Decider Skills for Children aged 7 – 12

This is a course is for any child aged 7 – 12 years old who would like to learn more about their mental health and ways to cope with difficulties. This is a universal course and any child can attend whether they are experiencing a Mental health difficulty or not. We believe this course should be available for every child.  We receive referrals from Parents, Schools, Family Support Workers and any other professionals.

We also offer many bespoke courses responding to the needs of the young people, which are usually run during the school holidays. Some examples of these courses are: 

  • Coping with Exam Stress
  • School Transition Workshops from Year 6 to Year 7
  • Mindfulness in Nature
  • Participatory Photography
  • Therapeutic Art

Please be advised that we are currently in the process of designing an Emotional Coping Skills course for Teenagers (13 – 18). More information about this course will be available here in due course.

To enquire about the decider skills courses please email Amy on a.hall@mindjersey.org

 

Youth Participation (Aged 11 – 25)

You have the right to say what you think should happen when adults are making decisions that affect you, and to have your options taken into account (UNICEF)

The right to participation is one of the fundamental values and guiding principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Youthful Minds Participation Group

Youthful Minds was the first service which was set up within the CYP team at Mind Jersey in 2015, and has been running ever since. Youthful Minds is a voluntary participation group in which the young people aim to educate others about Mental Health, tackle and reduce stigma surrounding Mental Health and Mental illness, and aims to improve services for Children and Young People in Jersey through sharing the voice of their lived experience. The group meet on a weekly basis and are actively involved in raising awareness and improving services outside of their weekly meetings too. Youthful Minds promotes self-confidence and self-esteem and allows young people to make a meaningful difference within an area they are passionate about. The group work closely with other professionals who support CYP Mental Health and share lots of their fantastic work on their own social media channels. If you are interested to know more about what they do, please do have a look on Youthful Minds Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  If anyone is interested in joining the group then an email can be sent directly to youthfulminds@mindjersey.org

Please see the poster they have created below:

Parent/Carer Support Offer

 

New Forest Parenting Programme (NFPP)

This is a course specifically for parents who have children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

The New Forest Parenting programme is specifically designed to help with the difficulties seen in children and teenagers with ADHD, and helps parents to learn about ADHD and how it might affect their child. This course is designed to support parents of 11 – 18 year olds. We know that parenting any child can be hard, but parenting children with ADHD can be additionally  challenging. NFPP is an evidenced based programme and provides parents with a tool-kit of ideas that can be used to support children and young people with ADHD. The course also helps parents to learn the skills needed to promote self-regulation, reduce inattentiveness and impulsiveness. Parents can book their space by emailing childrenandfamilyhub@gov.je and request to be added to this course.

 

Parent/Carer Decider Skills Course

The Decider Skills for parents is a course first and foremost designed specifically for parents’/Carers, own well-being and to provide parents with some strategies for emotional coping. This course is co-facilitated with the Child and Family Hub.

The Decider Skills use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to teach people to recognise their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, allowing them to monitor and manage their own emotions and mental health. The skills were designed to enable participants to make effective changes to help manage distress, regulate emotion, increase mindfulness,  and promote effective communication.

The Decider Skills aims to enable people to make effective and positive life changes. The Decider simplifies complex theory into user-friendly, practical, memorable, and effective skills. The skills are evidenced based and can be effective for  anxiety, depression, stress, and other mental health problems.

Other benefits include:

  • Ability to manage emotions & own mental health
  • Improve emotional intelligence
  • Develop & strengthen new neural pathways
  • More skilful, less impulsive life
  • Increase mind-body connection

With practice, The Decider Skills improve emotional intelligence, help our brains to develop positive habits, and provide skills to help us monitor and manage our mental health.

Parents can book their space by emailing childrenandfamilyhub@gov.je and request to be added to this course.

We also offer support to parents via phone consultations or meetings to support with them supporting any difficulty that their child might be experiencing.  We also meet with children and parents together when this is appropriate.

 

Local Signposting

Home – Kooth

Organisations providing support to children and young people’s wellbeing

Children and Families Hub

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Jersey

Home – Kooth

Advice & Support for Young People in Jersey Channel Islands – Youth Enquiry Service

 

Other Websites and helpful information

YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds

Charlie Waller Trust, mental health charity

Rethink Mental Illness

The Mix – Essential support for under 25s

Childline | Childline

Get.gg – Getselfhelp.co.uk

National charity helping people with Anxiety – Anxiety UK

OCD-UK | A national OCD charity, run by, and for people with lived experience of OCD

The Students Against Depression – Students Against Depression

The UK’s Eating Disorder Charity – Beat

SANEline services – SANE

Alumina | Selfharm

 

Helpful Apps

For Me – This App, created by ChildLine with the input of teenagers includes all of ChildLine services available; direct 1-1 access to a counsellor, advice and instant messaging on a range of issues that affect Young People. It is safe and discreet.

Moodometer – This App is an interactive mood diary for monitoring and understanding emotional wellbeing, it includes tips and guidance on how to influence mood.

StressHeads – This App aims to help 16 – 25 year olds identify and cope with stress. It also includes games to help distract Young people from immediate stress and monitor causes of stress.

SmilingMind – This App is a modern meditation App for young people, it uses mindfulness to boost calmness, contentment and clarity.

SuperBetter – This App has been created to help young people build resilience to become stronger, happier and healthier.

MindShift – This App is designed to help teens and young people cope with anxiety by teaching them to relax, develop more helpful ways of thinking and identify active steps to help take charge of anxiety.

MoodKit – This App uses CBT principles to help people with depression and anxiety manage and track their moods. It has a thought checker to identify negative thoughts and an activities tool to suggest wellbeing activities.

PositivePenguins (for children) – This App is aimed at 8 – 12 year olds and helps children understand their feeling and better understand the relationship between what they think and what they feel.

Stop Panic and Anxiety Self Help – This App is a self help App for people experiencing panic attacks.

Youper (for social anxiety) – This App has been developed to help people with social anxiety to gain confidence in social situations. Using the principles of CBT, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and MBSR (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction), it aims to help people understand their anxiety, control it, and then challenge it using real life guided practice exercises.

Stay Alive – This App offers help and support to people with thoughts of suicide and people concerned about someone else.

Calm Harm – This App aims to help young people resist the urge to self-harm by using four task categories which reflect the reasons why many people chose to self-harm (Distraction, comfort, express or release).