During this uniquely difficult time, Garden House School is supporting Place2Be to continue providing mental health support for the children and families who need them most. 

Why do Place2Be need support?

Lengthy school closures mean that already vulnerable children and young people could face increasing mental health problems as they cope with schools suddenly closing their doors, the cancellation of exams, a lack of face-to-face interaction with friends and possible family bereavement. Place2Be's frontline mental health staff have urgently adapted the way they deliver services to ensure that they can still be there for children and young people, delivering these services to the majority of their partner schools. 

How are Place2Be reaching the most vulnerable during this time?

In an incredibly short space of time Place2Be has transformed how they deliver their core service.

• Place2Be has been working tirelessly to reach those in need during the lockdown.  Since lockdown begun their mental health professionals have undertaken over an average of 1,500 phone consultations a week with young people, parents and school staff For many isolated families these are a lifeline – getting them access to basic necessities like food.
  


• Place2Be has partnered with a number of organisations  to increase the range of quality assured services they can offer using digital channels, including the app ThinkNinja which helps young people manage their own anxiety; the website Kooth for online counselling and wellbeing support; and via their own white-label crisis textline provided by Shout.


• Place2Be has also made their online module for teachers available to all their partner schools and have had over 700 participants register to access the programme.

Looking ahead

Sadly, Place2Be anticipate children's  mental health worsening over the coming period due to the upheaval in their lives and disruption to their routine.  

It is vital that Place2Be maintain their services to support children and school communities, but also that they are ready for  the future when schools reopen their doors. 

Place2Be are acting now to mitigate the mental health impact from COVID-19. From fast-tracking their online parenting resource, preparing Place2Be and school staff for life after lockdown, and adapting their training delivery to partly deliver online, they are supporting the adults around the children to help them through the challenges, whether these are their parents, carers, teachers or school leaders. 

Garden House School's support

The support of Garden House School could help ensure that Place2Be can continue their important work and be there for more children and families, now and in the future. 

• £12,500 – this could enable a year of essential services to be provided for two schools and a total school population of 900 during the coronavirus pandemic (via the adapted model highlighted above) and beyond.

• £20,000 – this could contribute to Place2Be's essential additional IT spend. This is needed to ensure that Place2Be have the IT equipment and IT support required to deliver their transformed services, and be there for children and families during this time. 

Thank you!

Thank you for supporting Place2Be, and helping to ensure that no child has to face mental health problems alone. 

“Most of us are lucky to have support from family and friends to prepare us for challenges that life can bring, but sometimes support systems simply aren’t there. How wonderful to have an organisation like Place2Be – just there in school: local, familiar, capable, reassuring, accessible, ready to turn a trauma from something that might tear a child apart into an experience that they can understand and move forward from” – Teacher