Wirral Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is part of Wirral Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) - formerly known as CAMHS - and is a service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people in education settings.
Within the MHST, Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CYWPs) and Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) offer support for mild to moderate mental health and wellbeing difficulties, and support education settings develop their whole-school approach to mental health.
The MHST works alongside all primary schools and eight mainstream secondary schools in Wirral.
Who is the service for?
The service has three core functions:
• To deliver brief evidence-based interventions to support children and young people with mild-moderate mental health problems (individually or in groups)
• To support schools in developing their whole school approach to mental health (through workshops, needs audits, parent/ carer or staff training)
• To provide timely advice to school staff and liaison with external services, to help children and young people to get the right help and stay in education (through regular consultations with the school Mental Health Lead)
How to access the service
Wirral Mental Health Support Team accepts referrals primarily from the Mental Health Lead (MHL) in each school. If you are concerned about your child’s emotional wellbeing, please speak to your child’s school MHL who will then be able to discuss your child (with your consent) with our CYWP or EMHP. This enables us to identify the most appropriate support for your child, which may be support from our team, support through school, or from another local organisation.
We do accept self-referrals; however, we will always seek permission to discuss your child with school to identify the best possible next steps. The self-referral form can be found in the link below.
What will happen at your first appointment?
Once the Mental Health Support Team has accepted a referral, the Education Mental Health Practitioner / Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Practitioner at your child’s school will contact you to introduce themselves and arrange an assessment. The assessment will take place with the child or young person and a parent/carer present, usually at your child’s school.
During the assessment, we will ask questions about family, school, friends, physical health, hobbies and staying safe.
There might be a follow-up call to the parent/carer after the initial assessment to check that all relevant information has been shared. Next steps will be agreed following assessment.
Where we are based
Mental Health Support Teams carry out most of their work with children and families in the child’s school. This means that the child is in a familiar environment and is missing as little of their education as possible. Should an appointment in a school not be possible or suitable, community venues or NHS venues can be used. Alternatively, some appointments may be carried out virtually via a Microsoft Teams call or via phone call.
Where else do we provide the service?
CWP also provides Mental Health Support Team (MHST) services across Cheshire, which work in a similar way to Wirral MHST. For more information, visit the Cheshire MHST page.
Contact us
If you need to get in touch with the team, please either speak to your child’s school's mental health lead or, once you are allocated a practitioner, phone the Wirral Children and Young People's Mental Health Service team on 0300 303 3157, where you can leave a message for the practitioner to return your call.
Our service operates all year-round from Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm, except on bank holidays.
Please note, we are NOT an emergency service. If you need support in a crisis situation, please contact the CWP crisis line on 0800 145 6485 or visit the I need urgent help page.