This toolkit can be used to support children and young people with a range of mental health and wellbeing concerns, including anxiety, stress, low resilience, low self-esteem.
Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing Needs Getting it Right for Every Child Experiencing Anxiety: A Toolkit for Practice.
The Anxiety Toolkit- who is it for?
The anxiety toolkit is appropriate for all practitioners working across early years, primary and secondary establishments, to support children and young people presenting with anxiety.
Using the toolkit to support good practice in assessment and intervention will help the Team Around the Child to get further insight into what the child/young person’s Additional Support Needs are and how best to support them.
Prevention and early intervention can stop problems from getting worse and empower people to manage their own wellbeing. Not every mental health need requires clinical intervention. Very often, it is the people who live with the child or who see the child most regularly (in school or elsewhere) who will make the difference in helping them overcome any wellbeing difficulties (including anxiety).
If the team around the child deems it appropriate to make a request for assistance to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), the toolkit can provide practitioners and families with a framework for thinking about the anxiety, how it presents and what interventions have been useful or not. This can provide valuable information for CAMHS to include in their assessment process.
In the process of assessing the child/young person’s needs, it may become apparent that school and family based supports are sufficient to achieve the desired outcomes and that a request for assistance to CAMHS is not required at the present time.
While the toolkit is specifically designed with evidence-informed approaches for assessment and intervention for anxiety, the toolkit can also be of assistance for other mental health and wellbeing concerns that practitioners and families have about children/young people.
A letter was issued to all Falkirk Council education establishments over summer 2020 with an update on the Toolkit.
Toolkit Contents
(you can navigate by clicking on the links below or using the drop down menu at the top of the page)
Understanding the anxiety (assessment)
- How Good Is Your Mental Health and Wellbeing Provision?
- Understanding Anxiety
- Strengthening Understanding of Anxiety (assessment) overview
- Strengthening Understanding of Anxiety (assessment) ‘tools’
- References and sources of support for assessment
Supporting the anxiety (intervention)
- Supporting Anxiety (intervention) overview
- Strengthening Support for Anxiety (intervention)
- Strengthening Support for Anxiety (intervention) ‘tools’
- Staff Wellbeing
- Resources for Specific Anxieties
- References and sources of support for intervention
Introductory course
This is an introductory online session to understanding and responding to anxiety experienced by children and young people. The content is also of use to adults in supporting their own mental health. The session is available and recommended for all staff working across early years, primary and secondary Falkirk Council establishments.
This session is delivered in 3 parts and is designed to be completed in the following order:
Part 1: Understanding anxiety (approximately 15 minutes, depending on time taken for 1 activity).
Part 2: Understanding anxiety continued (approximately 25 minutes).
Part 3: Responding to anxiety (approximately 1 hour including activities)
