Primary care services - mental health and wellbeing: resources

5 Children and Young People: Mental Health and Wellbeing Advice, Support and Signposting

5.1 School Counselling

Access to school counselling will be available for all children and young people aged 10 and over; parents/children should speak to their school or contact their local authority to find out how to access this service.

5.2 Aye Feel

Aye Feel supports young people’s emotional wellbeing with quality-assured information and expert advice. It is a resource to help young people manage their emotional wellbeing including, for example, advice on sleep, stress, body image, mindfulness and relaxation tips, contacts for mental health support organisations, Covid-19 support, grief and bereavement support etc.

The content is made for young people by young people, and provides signposting to emotional support locally and nationally. It is run by Young Scot and is accessed through general web searches and signposting. Young Scot collects data on use of this resource.

5.3 See Me

See Me run a number of other initiatives and campaigns including:

• Feels FM the world’s first emoji-powered jukebox for mental health, helping young people to use music to express how they are feeling and as a positive coping strategy;
• It’s Okay helping young people to understand their feelings and reach out for support, knowing that ‘it’s OK to be different’ and ‘it’s ok to not be ok’;
• See Us a movement that facilitates people coming together; to build on the positive changes in society, and doing something to make a difference to end mental health stigma and discrimination across Scotland.

5.4 Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework

The Scottish Government funds local authorities to provide community-based supports and services for the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people, their families and their carers. This funding gives local partnerships the flexibility to implement services on the basis of local priorities, with a focus on prevention and early intervention and as an alternative for those for whom CAMHS is not suitable. A list of email contacts can be found in appendix 5.

The Framework aims to:

• set out a clear broad approach for the support that children and young people should be able to access for their mental health and emotional wellbeing within their community;
• assist local children’s services and community planning partnerships with the commissioning and establishment of new local community mental health and wellbeing supports or services, or the development of existing supports and services, in line with this framework, and;
• facilitate the enhancement or creation of services that can deliver support which is additional and innovative, wherever these are best placed.