The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is an NHS service that has been introduced as part of the national plans to expand mental health services for children, young people, and their families within an education setting.
We work with education settings to provide mental health interventions, advice, and liaison with external specialist service to help children and young people to get the right support.
About the service
Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) partner with schools and colleges in Portsmouth to support mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Our focus is on early intervention, prevention, and promotion; for young people who are thriving, coping or would benefit from getting help.
What we do
The types of support we offer:
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Whole school approach: we provide whole class, year group and group interventions in line with identified school needs
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A range of CBT treatments: we offer a range of CBT interventions to treat low to moderate anxiety and low mood presentations. For primary age children, this is with parents.
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Signposting to other services: we work with schools and families to think about ways of supporting the child or young person, including signposting to other services or activities.
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Staff workshops: we offer training sessions to school staff to support understanding and management of mental health presentations in a school environment.
Accessing the service
All our referrals for direct intervention come through a named link within the education setting.
We work within mainstream schools and colleges within Portsmouth.
Outside of direct intervention, we also offer whole school approaches which include universal content - such as assemblies and parent workshops. These can be accessed within schools without the need for a referral to MHST.
We encourage other professionals, outside of schools, to discuss possible referrals with schools directly.
Some of the things we support with are:
- Low mood: sadness, low motivation
- Mild to moderate anxiety: worries, irrational fears and concerns. This includes social anxiety and specific phobias
- Single incident trauma.
How to find us
Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) can be found in schools and colleges in Portsmouth.
Contact information
Portsmouth Civic Offices, 3rd Floor Core 2, 1 Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2AL
Tel: 0300 123 5062
Out of hours
We are only open Monday to Friday 9am -5pm. We are closed weekends and bank holidays.