The Community Wellbeing Team at Young Somerset have had a busy year continuing the vital work of supporting the wellbeing and mental health of young people across Somerset.  Through our Wellbeing Service, the team has worked with over 570 young people, within a total of 3183 appointments.

To support the growing work of the Community Wellbeing Team, in 2021 we recruited 6 Community Wellbeing Link Workers. At the beginning of September, the Community Wellbeing Link Workers attended various Freshers Fairs in Strode, Cannington, Bridgwater and Taunton College. Reaching over 400 young people informing them how to access wellbeing support from our service.

In September the whole of Young Somerset come together for the very first time since 2019, where we spent time together, meeting new members of the Team, the growth of the organisation and the year ahead.

Events & Workshops

Birchfield School in Yeovil saw the Wellbeing Team run a 7-week programme on Worry management.  Working with children in the reception classes and their parents to enable them to recognise, support and explore their children’s emotions. Feedback from a teacher was: “I would like to say how much the children have enjoyed attending the sessions you provided. They always return to class happily, telling us all about all the wonderful things they have done.”

 Young Somerset’s Youth Work Team and the Wellbeing Service collaborated to run a Health & Wellbeing Fair at the Trinity Church in Frome.  This involved presentations on healthy eating, exam stress and sleep. There were also activities young people could join in with such as smoothie making, mindful colouring and other destressing options.

The Wellbeing service delivered workshops to parents of teenagers on the subject of anxiety, depression and self-harm.  The Wellbeing Service also collaborated with Young Somerset’s Jigsaw Project to deliver a parenting group to parents of young people who had been in hospital as a result of their mental health needs.

During the Summer month’s members of the Wellbeing Team took part in the Summer Works Programme and helped young people to partake in a range of diverse activities, ranging from hairdressing to mechanics and from low ropes to fun on the water.

The Operations Manager for the Wellbeing Team attended Wellington School to deliver a talk on the factors that impact on young people and their mental health and what could be done to help or address those issues.  The school have chosen Young Somerset as their local charity of the year which is very exciting.  On a sadder note, the Wellbeing Team recently delivered an assembly to a school where a teacher was tragically murdered, with advice on what would be normal in those circumstances and how pupils and staff could look after themselves and each other.

The Wellbeing Team have linked with the Somerset Cricket Foundation, this year and into next year, to deliver cricket workshops to young people in and around the Bridgwater area. The groups have challenged their skills with trying to improve their bowling, batting and fielding skills.

Creative Worry Management in Years 5 & 6 at two Frome schools started in November of this year. The children were able to make worry monsters and talk about their worries and understand a practical worry and hypothetical worry.

Our Wellbeing Link Workers created some video resources to send to young people who are on our current waiting list, these comprised of an introduction to our service and CBT, Psychoeducation of low mood and anxiety and the third was ways in which young people can help support themselves.

Over the last year the Wellbeing Team has undergone various training courses to expand their knowledge and skill set.  This included SARSAS, Young Minds, Samaritans and our Link Workers are currently on a Peer Support Worker course at Exeter University.

Participation Group

The Young Somerset Participation Group have continued to meet once a month over the past year to discuss everything wellbeing.  Their views and comments have been invaluable to us this year and we would like to thank them for their continued contribution.

2022

In September we successfully recruited 9 trainee Community Wellbeing Practitioners who will begin their training contracts in January 2022.  January will also see our current cohort of trainees become fully qualified Wellbeing Practitioners.

The Wellbeing Team will begin local school groups working with year groups 10 & 11, to encourage and support young people with exam stress, sleep and healthy eating.

We are looking forward to supporting even more young people in 2022. Thank you to all the local partners, schools, parents, and young people we have worked with this year – we wish you all a Merry Christmas!