Our approach to children's and young people's mental health
Our approach to children's and young people's mental health
Every day, children and young people across the UK struggle with their mental health.
We are committed to helping children and young people with their mental health, and the need for our services grows daily. 1 in 5 children and young people experience mental health difficulties. Half of all mental health problems are established by age 14.
Our approach to children’s and young people's mental health is to intervene early to prevent life-long mental health issues. We do this by:
- providing support early, spotting mental health problems before they develop and helping children and young people cope with challenges throughout their lives
- using an effective therapeutic approach backed by research that combines several ways of working
- offering a range of mental health support services, including advice and support for families and school staff, to build resilience and raise awareness of mental health across the whole school community.
Providing support early
Place2Be is a pioneer in early intervention. We help schools understand and identify mental health problems, enable children and young people to focus on learning and give them tools to cope with challenges throughout their lives. Find out more about our benefit to society.
Our therapeutic approach
Our support allows children and young people to express themselves through talking, creative work and play. Our mental health professionals use an integrative therapeutic approach backed by research that brings together different strands of therapeutic thinking to support the development of each child and young person. Find out more about our therapeutic approach.
Our mental health services
We offer a range of different mental health support services to meet schools’ needs. Our services include a devoted on-site mental health professional who runs these services.
Our services offer advice and support for families and training and consultations for school staff. Our services help build resilience and raise awareness of good mental health across the whole school community. Read about our school services.
The services we offer include:
- one-to-one counselling for pupils who are struggling
- short appointments to talk about worries, booked by pupils
- group work about friendship, self-esteem and other issues
- training for school leaders and staff to make schools more mentally healthy
- consultations for school staff about behaviour and wellbeing
- advice and support for parents to help them look after their child
- group programmes using art and discussion to build pupils’ self-esteem.
The difference we make
Evidence shows that our work makes a real difference in children's and young people's lives. We collect data and analyse the impact we make in schools to help us improve our services. Read about our statistics and evidence.
Using evidence and experience working directly with children and young people in the school environment, we:
- inform public policy across the UK
- engage politicians to help raise awareness of the importance of supporting wellbeing within the school community.
News & blogs
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Back to school: breaking down the barriers to attendance
As the school year starts, Place2Be's Educational Psychologist team share interventions to help improve school attendance.
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Race is Complicated: Transforming Psychological Therapies Training
The toolkit, created by The Coalition for Inclusion and Anti-oppressive, launched in October 2023.
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New laws expected to bring mental health improvements and school reform
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has given us a glimpse of his priorities for the coming year.
Read more