What is the MHST?

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) aims to provide an easily accessed service for pupils from primary to year 13 who may be experiencing a range of mild to moderate difficulties with their mental health.

The teams are based within education settings and if you would like to know if a school is covered by an MHST then please contact the school SENCO or the MHST direct on the numbers provided.

Each MHST consists of 14 team members, and include:

  • Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP)
  • Mental Health Practitioners (MHP)
  • Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHP)
  • Clinical Project Lead

Each school will be covered by an education mental health practitioner, a mental health practitioner and a senior mental health practitioner.

Difficulties the MHST can help with:

  • Low mood
  • Worry 
  • Anxiety (simple phobias, separation anxiety and health 
  • anxiety)
  • Panic episodes
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Single episodes of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)
  • Thoughts of self-harm and injury (non-life-threatening self-harm/injury – basic harm reduction, assessing risk and management advice)

What do the MHST do?

Assessments with young people and families to understand more about their difficulties.

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is usually on a one-to-one basis
  • CBT informed Group Work
  • Psychoeducation sessions to help young people and families understand more about mental health

As well as working with young people, we are also working:

  • to develop a whole school approach to mental health
  • offer training
  • webinars 
  • complete assemblies 
  • support with the PSHE curriculum

Requests for support

Requests for support will generally require parent/carer consent (for those under 16 years of age). Requests for support to the team should be submitted via email to mental health referrals.

Initial assessments (or screenings) are undertaken by practitioners within the MHST. Practitioners will meet with children and young people in a safe, confidential setting in schools or another location if needed. Parents/carers will routinely be involved in the assessment. The team can also 
offer appointments remotely via the NHS Attend Anywhere platform.

MHST use Routine Outcome Measures (ROMS) to inform our assessments and interventions. This is to improve care and demonstrate patient progress. ROMS are used collaboratively with children, young people and parents/carers to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of treatment.

A request for support has been made, what next?

Once we have received a request for support, we will look at all the information and decide whether it would be best seen by MHST or if another service would best meet their needs e.g. Clinical Psychology, Educational Psychology, Learning Disability Team or Eating Disorder Team.

We will then telephone to arrange an appointment.

What happens when we see the young person?

The first appointment with us is often an initial assessment or screening for both the young person and parent/carer.

This is a safe space where they can talk to us about the worries and difficulties that the young person is experiencing. We will talk to them about the ways that either the team or another service can help and support the young person. This appointment can take place virtually or face to face and we usually complete therapeutic sessions in the young person’s education setting.

If it is agreed that support from the MHST would be appropriate a clinician will be allocated and will then involve the young person and family in agreeing a care plan as well as decisions about discharging them from the service.

We use questionnaires and other rating scales to form part of the assessment, to understand the difficulties and whether we have been able to make a difference.

Referrers will be informed in writing of the agreed care plan and a copy of the letter will be sent to the young person’s GP.

Do I have a say?

As part of Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust, ELCAS works in partnership with you to ensure that your needs and views are always at the heart of what we do. It is important to us that we hear what you think. This is so we can improve the service we offer you, but more importantly so that you can play an active role in the services and care that we offer you.
We will communicate with you in a way that suits you best and in a way that is clear and understandable. We will always treat you with dignity and respect. If we get it wrong, please tell us. This will help us improve things for you and other young people who use our service.

Need to contact us?

If you need to contact us, please call the MHST administrative team: