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Support for your Mental and Emotional Health

We know that moving to the Leaving and After Care Team can be a tricky time for you, there can be lots of changes and decisions to make and this can feel a little bit overwhelming. Your Social Worker and Personal Advisor will support you to reduce any anxieties you may have around leaving care and independent living.

If you are working with CAMHS we will make sure you are supported to move over to adult services. If you feel talking to a counsellor would be helpful, we will signpost you to relevant services and help you with a referral. You can also access support via The Samaritans. This is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress and/or struggling to cope etc. 

The Bedford Open Door is there to support with  discusssing difficult subjects, drugs and alcohol, mental health and suicidal thoughts in children and self harm. 

We will support you to understand your Identity; we will help you make sense of your time in care and answer any questions you may have. We will support you to understand ‘who you are’ and can refer you to specialist organisations if you need more advice on issues like your sexuality, religion, gender or ethnicity.  Your Social Worker or Personal Advisor will make sure you have an opportunity to explore these areas and talk through any issues or questions you may have.

Moving from foster care to independent living can be very difficult and you can sometimes feel like you are on your own. The Leaving and After Care Team will support you to try new things and meet new people. We will help you find activities in your local area and support you to attend events like the Children in Care Council to meet other young people in similar situations to you. The Bedford Borough Council website has lots of details of activities and groups on their website for you to have a look https://www.bedford.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/

Useful article on NHS about social anxiety, there is also a 6 minute anxiety control audio guide by Dr Chris Williams that you can try and use to reduce your anxiety. You can find this at:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-anxiety/

You can also find various apps that you can download that might be useful in dealing with anxiety:

https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/category/mental-health/

XenZone is a provider of online mental health services for children, young people and adults. Kooth, from XenZone, is an online counselling and emotional well-being platform for children and young people, accessible through mobile, tablet.

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