Kent families are being reminded this Children’s Mental Health Week (February 1 to 7) of the mental wellbeing support available as Covid-19 continues to cause restrictions and impact people’s lives. HeadStart Kent, which is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and overseen by Kent County Council, is sending out social media clips of young…
HeadStart Kent, a programme that has enhanced the mental health and well-being of young people in the county since 2016, has been awarded extra funding to continue its vital work for an additional year. This week The National Lottery Community Fund, which has funded six HeadStart programmes in England since 2016, including the one led…
Draw Your Own Solution, a campaign to help young people in Kent aged 10-16 become more aware of what resilience is, and how to increase their levels of resilience, to bounce back from any back-to-school challenges, launches this week (Monday, August 24). This second phase of the National Lottery Funded campaign is part of Kent…
A mental health and wellbeing online platform for young people has been extended for all young people across Kent. As part of the Headstart Kent Programme, the Kooth digital mental health support service has already given one in five young people, aged 10 to 16, easy access to an online community of peers and a…
This Children’s Mental Health Week, young people in Kent are being invited to visit a new website designed to help keep them emotionally healthy – and there is a separate site aimed at helping parents support their children’s mental health too. MoodSpark (www.moodspark.org.uk) has been developed for young people in Kent, with young people in…
An inspirational teenager from Canterbury has won a national award for raising awareness of bullying and mental health challenges among young people. Megan Parker, 16, was honoured at The Children and Young People Now Awards for her work with Headstart Kent, which supports schools to help young people to cope better with difficult situations in…
A third school has been recognised with a Kent School Award for Resilience and Emotional Wellbeing in celebration of the support it offers its young people. St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School in Gravesend was successful in its application and received the Award from Kent County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, Roger…
Kent is supporting the national ‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign this World Mental Health Day (10 October) by reminding residents of the support services available across the county. Launched by Public Health England, ‘Every Mind Matters’ is the first national NHS mental health campaign encouraging adults to be more aware of their mental health and helps…
Schools in Kent are now able to apply for a Kent School Award for Resilience and Emotional Wellbeing, which recognises and celebrates everything they do to support young people’s emotional wellbeing through the whole school approach. The first two schools to succeed in their application are Homewood School in Tenterden and Westlands School in Sittingbourne.…
More than 100 secondary school pupils from schools and colleges across Kent met together to join the ‘Big Conversation’ about mental health in young people on Wednesday, March 21. The event, organised by Big Lottery Fund-supported HeadStart Kent, gave students information on improving their mental health, with workshops leading up to a big debate. Workshops…
Children and young people in Kent are less likely to have emotional or mental health problems as they grow into adults thanks to a programme funded by £10m from The BIG Lottery. HeadStart Kent is a preventative programme for 10-16 year olds in schools, aimed at improving their emotional resilience so they will be less…