Last updated

3 September 2024

If you decide you’d like some one-to-one support from Thought-Full here are the steps you’ll take:

Step one: Talk to the Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) or an adult you trust in your school. Describe the problem and what you would like to be different. This is a big and brave first step!

Step two: They will put this on a form and send it to us with some other details. If you are under 16 they will gain consent from your parents too.

Step three: We will look at the form and decide if we can help you. If we can’t help you, we’ll help your school work out who can! Either way we’ll be in touch!

Step four: We’ll meet up and talk things through. We’ll use some questionnaires with rating scales. These are just a way for us to decide how we can best help.

Step five: Once we understand the problem we will set some goals together and begin working on the problem. There will be things for you to try at home and we will meet each week to see how things are going.

Step six: We’ll meet with you for up to 10 sessions then bring things to a close. We’ll review your goals together and help you make
a set-back plan.

Guidelines of online sessions

  • Our sessions and the way we work is based on the idea of Collaborative Working, meaning that we will work with you, supporting you in making decisions together.  Usually, we meet with you for up to 10 sessions.  In our first session we will explore what the main issues of concern are for you, so that together we can decide if CBT informed interventions are the right support for you.
    We will then focus on what it is that is impacting on your life, and work together to unpick how you would like this to change. Whatever we work on, we will set a specific goal for our time together, so we can keep track of how helpful our sessions are. Depending on what we are working on, we may sit and talk about it and then actually practice things in everyday life so that we can begin to experience and think about things differently.  We will work together throughout this, reviewing and celebrating progress as it is made, identifying any setbacks and managing these, and then planning for how our sessions will come to an end.
    We will support you to manage your issue of concern, but you will need to work on this outside of our sessions for our interventions to be effective.  This is a key part of CBT, and will help you to use what you learn within our sessions and put this into practice in your everyday life.  We may set home learning tasks like reading, logging your progress at home, keeping a journal or we may ask you to complete activity sheets.  Not doing home learning tasks is one of the main reasons for CBT based interventions to not work, therefore it is important that you are willing to do this.  All we need from you is to be fully on board and motivated to talk and to work on this!

  • We will try to see you during the school day, in school hours.  Our sessions will usually last for the duration of a lesson, which is usually up to an hour.  We will try to see you in person, face to face, however when this is not possible, we will arrange our session virtually through the computer.  We will be able to see and hear each other.  No one else other than you, your allocated practitioner from the MHST and your parent or carer (if agreed) will be able to join in or hear the session so it will still remain private.

  • During the social distancing guidance given by the Government, we will provide support remotely. We will email you a link to Attend Anywhere, which is a secure NHS video call service, or we will use WhatsApp  video calling for our work.

    The full WSCC Privacy notice can be found here www.westsussex.gov.uk/privacy-policy/

    We have put together some guidelines to help make our online sessions go as easily as possible. Please read through the list below and feel free to ask any questions that you may have.
    Session Guidelines


    We will be using Attend Anywhere or WhatsApp for our sessions together. The following link https://nhs.vc/wsx-mhst will show you how to access Attend Anywhere’s waiting room.

    • We will call you at a previously agreed time. 
    • The practitioner cannot be contacted using WhatsApp outside of session times. 
    • Sessions generally take place weekly and last for up to 60 minutes.
    • It may be helpful to log on 5-10 minutes before the session to make sure the video link works and that you are comfortable and ready.
    • Try and find a quiet and private space for the meeting, ideally not your bedroom. Consider noise and if others can see or hear you, as well as personal or confidential information that may be in your background
    • Be respectful of your practitioner and the session. It is not acceptable to video, screenshot, or screen record sessions and share them with others on any social media platform or in any other format.
    • It is important for you to attend sessions at agreed times so we can provide regular support.
    • Please avoid forms of distractions during sessions (e.g. eating, mobile phone, computers, TVs)
    • Please wear appropriate clothing to sessions (e.g. not pyjamas, dressing gowns, revealing clothing, etc.
  • Session Attendance.

    At the time of the appointment, we will call you up to three times and if you do not answer, we will assume you are not able to attend the appointment.

    If you need to cancel an appointment, please give us at least 24 hours notice. To do so, email: MHST@westsussex.gov.uk. If we need to cancel your appointment for any reason we will contact you, giving as much notice as we are able to.

    Following two cancellations you will be offered a review to decide whether this is the best time to have sessions.

    If you miss more than two appointments without giving notice, we will discharge you from our service.

    In between Session Contact with your Practitioner.
    Contact outside of treatment times is limited.  Your practitioner will contact you for the following reasons, using an agreed e-mail address:

    To send you resources used in the session

    To send appointment confirmations

    For you to send copies of your work {if applicable}.

    DATA PROTECTION / PRIVACY NOTICE
    The MHST team will use questionnaires to collect personal and special category data, the processing of which is necessary to enable us to be compliant with the law (general well-being duties), and for reasons of substantial public interest.  The data will be processed in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, the General Data Protection Regulations, and any subsequent data protection legislation. The data we collect will be securely stored and kept for period of up to 2 years before being appropriately destroyed.  The data we will collect will not be used for any other purpose than that stated above without your prior written consent. West Sussex County Council is registered as Data Controller (Reg. No. Z6413427).
    For further details and information about our Data Controller, please see www.westsussex.gov.uk/privacy-policy.