Mental Health Practitioner
My job title is ‘youth mental health Practitioner’.
The Haven has been up and running in Guildford since May 2017 and now there are 4 across Surrey all open on different evenings and days at the weekend. It’s a very exciting project and a one off in the UK, due to its unique staff skills mix. I work at The Haven with two colleagues, a youth worker, and a children’s rights and participations officer. This skill mix means that we are able to meet the holistic needs of young people who visit the service. The Haven is an out of hours crisis drop in centre for children and young people in mental health, emotional and psychological crisis. One of the main aims is to provide an alternative to A&E, which can often be a frightening and stressful, where you can wait a long time to be seen.
As we are a drop in service, no appointment is needed, and young people, or their parents / carers can self refer and come along and visit when ever we are open.
When young people visit the Haven, we can offer them 1:1 support, identifying main issues of concern and doing some therapeutic work, such as anxiety management.
We also offer group work, an example of this is managing your emotions and building self esteem.