Many young people wait a long time to receive the help they need for their mental health. But the evidence shows that if they, and their parents or carers, are provided with suitable knowledge, skills, and tools, then these young people can do a lot themselves to build mentally healthy lives, reducing the risk of mental ill-health.
So, in co-operation with clinicians and researchers at the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, we are developing Headway®. This is a digital tool that will facilitate family-based self-help, enabling young people to build mentally healthy lives.
Headway® will provide:
- for parents and carers: knowledge and skills which will enable them to help their child; and Insight Tools to help them identify risk factors that might lead to mental ill-health in their child.
- for children and young people: Therapeutic Activities that will help the child to reduce the impact of these risk factors, and build a mentally healthy life.
Available now:
The Headway: Parent Toolkit enables parents and carers to develop vital knowledge and skills to help their children build mentally healthy lives. It is currently available as an online eLearning resource, but will subsequently be integrated into the Headway® app when this is released.
In the final stage of useability testing:
The first two Insight Tools, and the first four Therapeutic Activities, have been created and are in the final stage of useability testing.
We are inviting families to try out these tools which will subsequently be integrated into the Headway® app when this is released.
The evidence-based psychology underlying these tools to help children build mentally healthy lives, reducing the risk of mental ill-health:
Currently being developed:
Our vision is to help as many children and young people as possible.
Therefore we are turning the first four Therapeutic Activities into plug-ins which can be added to websites of other organisations that reach and serve young people.
Find out more at www.FamilyMentalWealth.com/Plug-ins.