Welcome
to your monthly newsletter

Welcome to ChEWS News, the monthly bulletin for young people and families who are awaiting or accessing support from ChEWS at Northorpe Hall or CAMHS at SWYT. This bulletin will hopefully provide some information, resources and tips to help you reflect on your self-care and emotional resilience.

Calling all parents and young people: Do you want to contribute to this newsletter? Do you want to share your experiences of mental health and emotional well-being or tell us about things you have found helpful and share them with others to try? If you have anything you feel would be helpful to include in the newsletter please email Rosa Forrest. Also please let us know if you have any suggestions of topics you would like to see in future newsletters.

My Intense Emotions Handbook
by Sue Knowles

Recommended
by Rosa

This is a guide to the emotional and interpersonal issues you may encounter as a young adult, packed with advice and real-life stories of hope and resilience from people in similar situations. This book will help you to gain an understanding of the influence of your early emotional experiences, and share tried-and-tested strategies, drawing on a range of psychological approaches and evidence-based strategies.

This book also looks at how emotions can affect our relationships, with a focus on building empathy for others, getting what you want out of friendships and relationships and dealing with the hard parts like boundaries and saying no, making amends when needed, and recognising and breaking problematic relationship patterns.

With personal stories and resources throughout, this is a guide to refer to as little or often as you like, helping you to understand your emotions and find the strategies that work best for you.

Sing with us & Shine

Join Young Creative Minds' FREE singing groups for people aged 11-18 who are from Kirklees, Wakefield, Calderdale and Barnsley and who want to have fun and improve their wellbeing. You don’t need any previous singing experience.

For more information, click here to view their leaflet.

ChEWS Waiting Times

• 11.2 weeks for Counselling support
• 24 weeks for direct support with an Emotional Health Worker
• 20.6 weeks for direct support with a Senior Practitioner



This is from the date of the original support request.

Managing Intense Emotions

Our emotions fluctuate throughout the day and they are often caused by not only what we see but what we are thinking. If we are thinking negatively, then this has a profound affect on how we feel. The opposite is also true. There is a lot of research around unhelpful thinking styles and how this affects our feelings and mood. We all have a baseline, our green zone where we are achieving, connecting, enjoying etc. However, it might not take much to take us up the emotional escalation curve such as starting to feel anxious or nervous about going somewhere, meeting someone, etc. We are now entering the amber zone and may start to see some physical sensations in our body like rapid heart rate, breathing, sweaty palms, queasy tummy etc. We usually manage this by using some coping strategies like distraction techniques to take our mind off the worry to help us get back into our green zone. Occasionally we may hit the top of the curve where we are feeling completely overwhelmed and out of control, resulting in either a meltdown where we end up hurting ourselves, others or our property or a shutdown. This is also referred to as the flight, fight, freeze responses. The good news is that our bodies cannot sustain this amount of excess emotional energy caused by adrenaline and cortisol for a long period of time, so we do start going back down the emotional escalation curve. At this point calming strategies will help to get us back to our green zone, being mindful that it might not take too much to hit the top of the curve again. Often, we may end up below our baseline the blue zone where we feel embarrassed, disappointed, or tired. The key is having suitable coping strategies to manage these intense emotions.

Chill 'n' Chat

Chill N Chat is a group to discuss any concerns and get advice and support around challenges facing their children and young people’s emotional and mental wellbeing.

The next Chill 'n' Chat will be held in The Barn at Northorpe Hall on Tuesday 22nd June 2021 from 10am-12pm.

Click here to sign up to attend

#LetsTalkAboutSelfHarm

Did you know that at least 1 in 12 young people will self-harm at some point in their lives? Self-harm can be a very secretive behaviour and something that people can find very difficult to talk about. Through the campaign #LetsTalkAboutSelfHarm we want to raise awareness, increase understanding, get people talking and promote helpful responses.

Visit our website for more information and resources.

Kooth is an online support service providing self-help and online counselling for children and young people aged 11-18. To access the service visit the site www.kooth.com and sign up with your location as Kirklees.

Workshops for children, young people and their Parents/Carers

We offer a range of workshops online and face to face to explore a number of common mental health concerns providing information and useful things to try to support. Please click the link below to book onto sessions available for children and young people and their parents/carers. For online sessions we will be using Zoom and you will need to sign up with an email address we can contact you on and have access to a computer/laptop and a quiet space at the time of the session for 45mins.

Create

Create is a supportive social group for young people with learning difficulties (and other additional needs).

We currently have spaces in our Junior Group for ages 8-12. The group runs on a Weds evening 5-6.30pm in term time, activities include craft, games, chatting, painting and generally having fun!

Please contact Northorpe Hall and ask to speak to the Create Project Leader to find out more.

"Self-Care Station"

Every Tuesday at Northorpe Hall, Mirfield

First Drop in - 4:30pm to 5:30pm (Ages 11-14)

Second Drop in – 6pm to 7pm (Ages 15-18)

Northorpe Hall are offering a self-care drop in for those young people who are currently waiting for support. The drop in includes some check in time, getting to know one another and has a focus each week to build on your emotional resilience and the importance of self-care – looking after yourself! This could include strategies to help manage anxiety, low mood, anger, self-harm and building relationships with others. It can also offer a safe space to talk and explore what may be holding you back. Please note these sessions are for young people only and not parents.

The Self-Care Station offers a relaxed and engaging way of learning new ways to help manage and cope when life feels difficult. We aim to make it an inviting safe space to come and relax, learn more about yourself and meet others who may be experiencing the same difficulties. You don’t need to book on, just turn up at Northorpe Hall at the times stated.

Jo, Lydia & Annrose look forward to seeing you at the Self – Care Station!

Chathealth

Please see the link below to learn more about Chathealth, a text service available for young people and parents/carers through Thriving Kirklees.

For parent/carers: 07520 618867

For young people aged 11-19: 07520 618866