A SCHOOL teamed up with a mental health charity to provide a series of mental health workshops and activities focussing on building resilience.

Dorchester Middle School collaborated with Dorset Mind’s children and young people division, ‘Dorset Mind Your Head’ (DMYH) to offer the classes to mark Children’s Mental Health Week (Feb7-13).

The school is also encouraging staff, students, and parents to take part in The Great Field Park Run today (Saturday) which aims to raise vital funds for the charity.

“The isolation and restrictions of lockdown proved detrimental for young people’s mental health as they were denied contact with their peers and network of support,” said Dorset Mind CEO, Linda O’Sullivan.

“As a direct response to this demand Dorset Mind Your Head created a weekly wellbeing check-in service which allows vulnerable children the platform to speak to someone regularly about their mental health.

“We’re exceedingly grateful to the funding support we receive from grant organisations and the efforts of our local communities and schools like Dorchester Middle School, as this enables us to continue delivering our programme free of charge.”

Young Minds recently reported a large increase of referrals to mental health services for under 18s between June and April 2021.

Dr Andrew Mayers, a patron for Dorset Mind and a mental health expert at Bournemouth University, said: “DMYH is one of the success stories at Dorset Mind. As an ambassador for children’s mental health, I welcome the work that is done support young people’s wellbeing across Dorset.

“The recent data from Young Minds is a matter of concern, but I am confident that we are well placed at Dorset Mind to meet that challenge. Having support like this from Dorchester Middle School will help us achieve that.”

DMYH has, since 2018, supported 70 of 173 schools in Dorset, educating young people on how to look after their mental health, and educating parents, carers, and teachers on how to support them, having reached more than 24,000 young people.

The organisation relies on donations and wants to encourage residents to help raise awareness and funds for their mental health services - which can be done via the Dorset Mind website.