NEW services could be implemented by Oxfordshire County Council to improve children’s mental health and wellbeing.

The emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people has been selected as a key priority by the county council so that “all children and young people in Oxfordshire can achieve good mental health and wellbeing with access to the right support at the earliest opportunity when they need it.”

Now the council is working with schools, health services and organisations to create a strategy focusing on young people’s mental-illness prevention, including new services to support children and their families.

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According to a draft report, some of the services that could be implemented include:

  • A digital mental health platform for children and young people
  • An interactive directory of mental health and wellbeing services
  • Whole-school wellbeing and resilience programme
  •  16-25 transition services to support young people with their mental health who are being discharged from CAMHS and are not eligible for Adult Mental Health Services
  • Family learning and support programmes
  • Training programmes for children and young people workforce in how to better support  mental health and wellbeing
  • Young person’s preventative mental health and wellbeing support

Ansaf Azhar, Oxfordshire County Council's Director of Public Health, said: “If this was looked after properly we would definitely reduce the waiting list.

“Children’s services, public health and health care all came together to look at this as a holistic strategy, in terms of what we can do to improve the emotional and mental wellbeing of children and young people in Oxfordshire, and by doing so reducing the need of specialist intervention.

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“I think that is what the young people of Oxfordshire need and the right thing to do. We looked at the evidence in terms of what are the interventions that are effective to protect their mental health and wellbeing.”

Councillor Liz Brighouse said: “There’s a whole lot of work that is being done about how we could engage better with this – we need to make sure we build equity into these systems to try better and address all of it.”

Dr Nick Broughton, from Oxford Health, said: “I really welcome the focus on schools – I think our ambition should be to ensure schools across the county are truly psychologically informed environments.”

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The draft report said: “This work outlines key local health inequalities and these have been considered throughout the planning of the strategy.

“The delivery of the strategy will target resources at children and young people who need it most considering protected characteristics such as age, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, race, and religion or belief.

“We will continue to work with children and young people in the design and delivery of the strategy.”

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi