Yavneh College has become the latest Jewish school to provide professional, one-to-one mental health support to its pupils under Jami’s Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service.
Starting this week, students aged between 11 and 18 at Yavneh College who are struggling with their mental health, will be provided a safe, confidential space to discuss friendships, emotions, family life, anxieties and any other challenges they may be facing, and to learn strategies to overcome barriers to improve their self-esteem and confidence.
Young people can also receive emotional and practical support to help them through the exam period, as well as the day-to-day of school life.
Already well-established at JCoSS since 2022 and JFS since April 2023, the expansion to Yavneh College in Borehamwood comes at a time when one in five children and young people has a probable mental health disorder and the country’s mental health services are under-resourced. Statutory services like CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) remain under intense pressure, leaving many young people unable to access timely help.
Louise Kermode, Jami’s director of community mental health services, said: “It is more important than ever for us to provide this specialist service to as many secondary-school-aged children as possible in our community, filling a vital gap between the growing numbers of young people struggling with their mental health and the lack of mental health services currently available to them.”
Spencer Lewis, executive headteacher at Yavneh, said the implementation of the scheme will provide “a huge amount of much-needed support for the pupils of Yavneh College. There is an ever-increasing need, and I could not be more grateful to Jami, which is part of Jewish Care. I look forward to the flourishing of this partnership.”
Young people receiving support through The Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service will also be able to benefit from additional tailored, accessible support and counselling following the recent expansion of Jami’s talking therapies service to include those aged 11 to 18 years old.
To find out more about The Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service, click here or visit: jamiuk.org/dangoor-cyp/
You can call Jami on 020 8458 2223
