You have recognized that a child is suffering from mental health issues. You have collected all the information and you're very sure that this is what is happening. Possibly the child has also disclosed to you because you've had a chat with them as part of your investigation. And they have saved that, you know, they feel sad all the time, or they feel fearful or anxious all the time. They can't sleep, they're not eating well, they don't want to come to school, they've told you all that is indicative, the child is experiencing mental health issues now you know, but how can you help them? That is what I'm going to be looking at now.

The first thing to do is to develop a helping relationship with this child. For anyone who is experiencing mental health issues. The first thing that we have to do is to invoke the helping relationship and this involves listening, listening to them, giving them the ear, being able to listen to what they're saying, and also to listen for those bits of information that help us understand what they have going through. Listening is very important, because then by listening, we show them that we care. We show them that we are there for them, we show them that they can talk to us when they need us. We also have to be empathetic.

Empathy is important we all be on it. If someone you know is empathetic, you know there and this children want to know that we're we have to be empathetic when working with them when supporting them. And we have to do this in a non judgmental way. Probably they have been judged enough. It could be that these are looked after children. Oh, it could be a children who are being raised up in an environment of, you know, gun lifestyle.

And they've seen this over and over where they've been judged. It could be a distributor being bullied and they've been called names and the will rejected, they need someone who is willing to receive them in a non judgmental way. So we need to be non judgmental, and they need to know that they need to be able to sense that they're not being judged, because then we'll build the trust and the foundation to help them. Another thing is the positive regard, we need to appreciate them we need to look for the good things in them that they do not see probably, for instance, if they have issues with self esteem or self confidence, they might not be able to, you know, pick up on the good things, we have to show that and we have to be, you know, positive around them. Also, we can help them by building up a social circle.

System for them. social support is important as humans, we really thrive when we're among other people, because we, you know, benefit from energy for other humans. We need a sense of belonging. So it's important to say for instance, in a school setting to build up this support system. I mean, this is something that has been done before I have worked with children who one of the interventions that we've used is or part of interventions is being to pair them with another child. That can work very well, because if we do a list, we've given them a friend, unless we've given them someone that they can turn to and have a meaningful conversation.

At least we've given them someone that they can turn to when we are not available. So they need that support. We can also connect them with other teachers so that if we are not in school, they're not lost. We connect them with the support staff, the teaching assistants, the student mentors and learner development team, the the pastoral staff, the safeguarding team, all those ones, unless we can find someone or two or three people who they can turn to if we're not there, so they're not lost and the no feel the sense that there is someone there for them. Besides that, we are connecting them to the school anyway, engage the primary, you know, the school or the community setting or childcare facility, whatever it is, bring the family and put them in engaged because this child is part of the family unit. If you cannot engage the nuclear family for one reason or another, because I've worked with children where the the nuclear family cannot be engaged because you know, the child has problems are stemming from the family and an impact, engage extended family.

Social workers are very good at doing this. They'll have extended family, engage them to support this child and use that holistic approach to support this child.