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Mental Health

The Collett School and St Luke's Schools work with the Mental Health Support Team (MHST).  

The NHS Mental Health Support Team (MHST) in SEN schools in Hertfordshire and West Essex.

Our schools work closely with the MHST in SEN Schools, an early intervention service working with mild to moderate mental health difficulties and challenging behaviours in educational settings. The MHST supports children, their families, and school staff, and is currently based in several SEN schools across Herts and West Essex. The service is ‘hosted’ by PALMS in Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, but is separate to the PALMS team.

The MHST helps to support mental health in our schools through several ways:

  • Workshops with young people or parent/carers or staff.
     
  • Group based work with young people or parent/carers around emotional regulation and transitions. 
     
  • Guided 1:1 self-help sessions (6 – 8 weeks) with young people, parent/carers around proactive prevention and support for mild to moderate mental health difficulties and challenging behaviours
     
  • A ‘whole school approach’ to understanding and improving mental health, which may include supporting the school’s mental health lead, supporting with the wellbeing curriculum, identifying mental health resources, training for staff, creating posters and displays etc.
  • Signposting staff and families to appropriate support.

The team is made up of a Team Lead, Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHPs), Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Psychologist, and administrator support.

If you are interested in further information and/or support, please contact the team on the following email address mhst.hct@nhs.net  or contact:

The Collett School:

Mrs Anu Gray - Head of Interventions via school admin/reception.

St Luke's School:

Mrs Rachel Andrew - Head of Interventions via school admin/reception.