Camden children get an innovative new website on emotional health
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
We have recently begun an exciting project to provide every primary-school aged child in Camden access to an emotional health website. Funded by Camden Primary Care Trust the site will be launched in the Autumn to coincide with the start of the new term.
1 in 10 children have some kind of mental health difficulty while at primary school. Our site will promote good mental health, helping them to manage difficult feelings and to signpost routes to specialist services should they be needed. Delivering games, interactive content and child-friendly designs, the site will link into the high-quality work already done in schools around emotional learning. We have already started consulting primary school aged children. We have learnt that they would value 'someone they could talk to' and who could given them advice, games, a site that is interactive and fun as well as being informative and supportive. Children have suggested that the site links with schools and with adults, perhaps with a section for parents and for schools. We are currently consulting more widely on these issues to find out exactly what teachers and parents want from the site. Sally Hodges, our Communications and Public and Patient Involvement Lead and project lead for the website is delighted to have received funds to develop this site in Camden. Sally commented “there is a great deal of online information that covers emotional health for teenagers but there is very little for younger children. The children we have asked welcome this site and we look forward to its launch”.
