This Children’s Mental Health Week, we caught up with InFocus’ Pastoral Lead, Jane Beveridge, on how we tackle mental health and support our young people with vision impairment and complex needs.
One in five young people with complex needs will require support with poor mental health, and if you are a young person who is struggling with symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or loss – having to learn as well can just seem too much.
Jane Beveridge, Pastoral Lead
It’s quite common now to hear the phrase ‘it’s ok not to be ok’ but what does that mean for our young people here at InFocus? One in five young people with complex needs will require support with poor mental health, and if you are a young person who is struggling with symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or loss – having to learn as well can just seem too much.
As InFocus’s Pastoral Lead my role is diverse. Trained as a Bereavement and Loss Counsellor with a background in Rehabilitation in Visual Impairment, it is really important to find tools to fit individuals. This could mean an individual 1:1 session in the pastoral room sitting in the big blue comfy chair or a more discreet type of emotional support through a multi-professional meeting.
Mental Health features within our PSHE curriculum where we take time to explore emotions either through poems and resonance boards, choose it maker programmes or tactile switches, and this continues through to the evenings where we hold group chats in the residential homes and emotional well-being is supported by our key working enablers.
Physical activity is great for improving mental health so ‘Boogie with Bevo’ takes place twice a week outside where you can find us doing the ‘cha cha slide’ , the Macarena or YMCA! We’re also working with the Exeter Chiefs Community Coaches this term to deliver some adapted rugby sessions that are proving a great way to encourage our young people to get outside and benefit from lots of fresh air.
We teach our young people to try and understand what they are feeling and why they may feeling this way. We give them time to process their emotions and it is important to remember that as parents, teachers and carers we should not try to fix everything. Sitting quietly with someone, giving them time and letting them express their emotions can be really therapeutic. That’s the real art of recognising that it is ‘ok not to be ok’.
This Children’s Mental Health Week, we’re discussing students values and sense of belonging in our monthly student council meeting. We’re also ‘dressing to express’ at our end of the week assembly, and encouraging our young people to wear the clothes that really make them smile.
