Kent schools came together for mental health

200 children attended Kent County Council's Big Mental Health Conversation exhibit.  Henry Luck reports

Transcript

00:00It's a topic that often goes under the radar, but more young people are opening up about it.

00:06To mark World National Health Day, Kent County Council invited pupils and students

00:12to Maidstone's Dettling Showground to show them the importance of emotional well-being

00:18for its third annual big conversation event.

00:21World Mental Health Day was established in 1992 by Richard Hunter,

00:28who was the Deputy Security General of the World Federation of Mental Health.

00:33It has the goal of spreading awareness on the topic of emotional and psychological well-being.

00:40It's very important because I think young people are especially susceptible

00:43to vulnerability around mental health, and especially young men and boys don't

00:47tend to talk about things like this. So to have the ability to all come together

00:50and really be open about how we find our mental health and what we can do to improve it,

00:54it's really useful for students and I think it's a great event for them.

00:57A marketplace with organisers such as MIND were displayed,

01:02alongside therapy pets and mindfulness workshops.

01:06Standing behind me is the pony Taffy, and she's serving as a therapy pony

01:12here at Dettling Showground. Ponies are often used as therapy pets

01:18because of their calming nature.

01:21Supporting Kent County Council is the NHS, who have seen more and more young people

01:27using their services in the past year.

01:30So we are getting more and more children using our NHS services,

01:34so it's really important that we work together with other partners to ensure that we are providing

01:40as many services to as many children as possible.

01:43Kent County Council's also trying to fund a new therapeutic support service

01:48to report the current counselling service for children and young people,

01:53hoping to continue breaking down barriers.

01:56What we're finding is that there are too many young people for us to offer that service

02:00in a very sensible way. They're having to wait, and it's a one-to-one counselling service.

02:04So we're consulting with young people about perhaps offering a slightly different

02:09service, whereby we're looking at group work, therapeutic work,

02:15and there'll still be one-to-one counselling, but a much greater spectrum of mental health support.

02:21Henry Luck for KMTV in Maidstone.