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Demystifying mental health support in Hertfordshire

Published 23 December 2021

On the Local Offer website we always aim to make the pathway through different services as clear as possible - from where to begin, through to who you might meet if you need something more specialist, and what to expect from them. There are a lot of different mental health services out there, and understanding them isn’t always easy. We knew we could do some work to improve our mental health service pages to simplify what can be a very complex system. 

We worked closely with health professionals from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and parents from Herts Parent Carer Involvement (HPCI) to really understand what is important when supporting a child or young person's mental health needs. In this blog post, we explain what we learnt about mental health services, how families support their young person's mental health, and how we have turned this into better online information.  

click test example

We asked our SEND online feedback group to test new versions of the page by giving them scenarios and asking where they would click.

During our meetings with CAMHS and HPCI, we discussed many different aspects of mental health, including the support that was required in different areas of a young person's life, and how the levels of support needed could change quickly, for example if a family experienced a period of crisis.

To bolster these conversations and ensure that we were reaching the right conclusions, , we also reached out to our SEND online feedback group and asked them to test a number of drafts of the new information we were building.

We invited parents to individual online sessions with us too, to hear about their experiences, and understand whether our online information could have pointed them in the right direction in their time of need. These conversations resulted in some insights we hadn't considered before - we took these back to the CAMHS/ HPCI working group to inform our work.

What improvements have we made ?

  • Families told us that there were times when they felt they were in crisis and needed urgently to speak to someone - we have made a 24/7 mental health phoneline a key feature at the top of our page.
  • Sometimes parents needed help knowing when to ask for support, so we added an information section for parents on 'how to spot if your child has a mental health concern' to help them make this decision.
  • Parents told us they found it hard knowing which service was the right one for their young person. They also told us that they tend to search by the age range of their child and the SEND specific needs that the service can cater for. We are continuing to work with health professionals from the different mental health services to make this information clearer. We have also re-arranged the services to give a sense of'hierarchy', and the pathway through support that you might take.
  • When talking to parents, it became clear that the practical strategies and techniques they used at home directly with their child, were some of the most important factors when it came to supporting their mental health. We have added more mental health resources to the website, including SEND specific mental health support.

View the mental health and wellbeing services webpage

Have your say

As always, we would really welcome your thoughts. 

If you have comments or suggestions about this new page, or any other aspect of the website, we would like to hear from you.

localoffer@hertfordshire.gov.uk

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