Early Help Offer – Mental Health and Emotional Well-being​

Trinity Mental Heath Pathway

At The Trinity Catholic School we strive to provide support for students in many ways and we understand how important good mental health is for our pupils. Our safeguarding and well-being team have created this information to help students and parents understand where to go if they need help with emotions and well-being. Whether you want to understand more about how you’re feeling and find ways to feel better, or you want to support someone who’s struggling, we can help. 

Reaching Out

Asking for help can be hard if you need tips for having that conversation click here to help.  

If you do feel able to tell someone any teacher at school or your Pastoral Leader will want to help you, also the safeguarding and well-being team have all been especially trained to offer support. You can get hold of them either by email or in person. The Elim support room is always staffed by someone from the team. 

If you do not feel comfortable saying it aloud at first you can also use the TRINITY REACH OUT button. This will allow you to email the team directly and someone will respond to you in school hours.  

How will they help?

Firstly they will listen without judgement and make sure you have been heard and you know that your feelings are valid. Not everyone needs help in the same way so here are a range of the options that will be available to you: 

Regular Check-ins With a Key Staff Member

A key member of staff whom you feel comfortable with will ensure you have some time 1:1 to check in on how things are, offer support, and ensure that you feel valued and heard. This can help things be resolved and also stop negative feelings from building up. These check-ins could be fortnightly, weekly or more often and normally will happen in form time.

Elim Support Programme

The Elim Support Programme is 2 sessions, with a member of the Elim support team, to assess a student’s current situation. This informs the team of the best channel of support for the student moving forward. This can be continued support from the wellbeing team or referrals to other agencies they access during school hours.

A student or parents/carers can request this through heads of year, teachers or directly with the wellbeing team.

Peer Mentoring

Sometimes it can feel harder to talk to an adult about how you are feeling and someone nearer your age may be easier for you. We can match you up with a Peer Mentor who is a 6th-form student who is trained to listen and offer support and advice. They will meet with you regularly to get to know you and give you the space you need. If needed they will get further advice from a teacher to help you.

“it was so much easier talking to someone nearer my age than an adult who doesn’t get it”

Outside Services

At Trinity we will always aim to maintain positive links with Mental Health services available to
students and families and we are happy to advise and support with referrals to these services. These include:
CAMHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team
Kooth- online counselling
BEUNotts talking therapies

Imara – sexual abuse support
Harmless – self harm support
CGL drug and alcohol support
Base 51 – Nottingham city counselling support

Safety plans, time out passes and communication with staff

If a student’s mental health is very challenging to them and they are experiencing more intense periods (such as regular and intrusive suicidal ideations or self-harm urges) we can ensure that staff around them have full understanding of this so that they are better informed of how to support them. We can also use safety plans created with the student and their families, to refer to in times of stress and crisis. We can also use mental health professionals (for example MHST team and CAMHS) to help us create or check the safety plans are appropriate and properly supportive. Part of these safety plans may include a time-out pass to be able to access the school Well Being Team in moments of stress or crisis.

Single Offload Session

Sometimes we can feel that everything is getting overwhelming – whether it is about one incident or many things – and it can help to have the space to offload all of those thoughts by talking or writing it down. The pastoral and well-being team can facilitate this space and time for a student to unload, unpack and unwind their worries. If a one-off session is not enough than further referrals can be made.

School Nurse

The school has a joint partnership with the School Nursing Team. The school has a dedicated school nurse who is in once a week. They provide 1:1 support for health and wellbeing needs and drop-in chats at lunchtime.
Students or parents/carers in yr 7-13 can access this through heads of year or the well-being team, or can self-refer through the website:
https://www.nottinghamcitycare.nhs.uk/our-services/childrens-public-health-0-19-
nursing-service

MHST

School has a joint partnership with MHST – Mental Health Support Team. The school has a dedicated key worker who is in once a week. They provide support for Low level mental health needs through 1 to 1 CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), group work and drop-in chats at lunchtime.
Students or parents/carers in yr 7-11 can access this through heads of year or the well-being team.
Students in sixth form can self-refer to this service.