Posted on: 9 November 2023
Training for community organisations
Last month CAST hosted a training event for our partners at St Mary’s Ukrainian School. It was a great opportunity to have the team visit CNWL Trust HQ in Euston Road. Since November 2022 CAST has been working closely with staff at the supplementary school to develop a screening and support model to for children arriving from war-torn Ukraine.
Promoting the importance of mental health screening
Screening is important because many children leaving their country of origin will have experienced traumatic events. For some children, their experiences can negatively impact on their psychological wellbeing. When children arrive to a new country, it can be difficult to identify children who are struggling with their mental health. A whole range of factors linked to their experiences in their country of origin, their journey here and how they experience the new country will impact on their psychological wellbeing and the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder. It was recognised early on that the optimal approach would be to offer proactive screening to Ukrainian children through schools, given that many would not actively seek help themselves, which is typical of those with trauma internationally. Typically, most refugees – adults and children alike – do not access the mental health support they need which can lead to more complex presentations over time.
Screening allows conversations to take place with children to understand how they are adjusting to being here and through a standardised measure, checking in on trauma. Most children will not require specialist support or intervention but it is important to ensure that for those that do, they are identified and supported through the referral process in a timely manner before difficulties become more acute. CAST has provided training on screening for a range of staff working in the statutory and voluntary sector.
Educational Support Workers from St Mary’s Ukrainian School attended a training workshop delivered by Dr Jai Shree Adhyaru and Ankita Guchait. The workshop entitled “mental health screening in refugee populations” focused on the rationale for screening, an introduction to screening tools, how to carry out screening conversation, focusing on children as well as their parents.
Programmes for children fleeing war
For children that have experienced a similar traumatic event, such as those leaving their country due to war or crises, Children and War Foundation developed a group-based approach called Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT). TRT can be used by trained non-specialists. Following screening, as part of the screening and support model, TRT has been delivered to Ukrainian children since January 2023, reducing the number of children that require specialist services such as CAMHS.
Educational Support Workers from St Mary’s Ukrainian School have been trained to deliver Teaching Recovery techniques (Children & War Foundation UK) – a programme designed to meet the needs of groups of children who have experienced similar traumatic events.
Collaboration across agencies
The CAST intervention in Westminster and RBKC was funded by the Ukraine Response Team of the two local authorities and allowed CAST to develop a model of screening and support, with principles that can be generalised to other localities. Working closely with staff experienced in delivering trauma interventions in Ukrainian led to better engagement through first language provision and delivery of the model in a culturally sensitive way.
Feedback from Westminster City Council and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea:
“It has been a real privilege working closely with CAST and St Mary's over the past year, and this work has made an immeasurable difference for Ukrainian children who access our local schools in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea or are known to St Mary's, as well as their families. We are very pleased to see the outcomes of this work being shared with other London Councils today and hope that this approach can benefit refugees in other parts of London as well. Thank you Jai, John, Inna and Orysya for our productive partnership and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us.” (Neli Barketallah, Transformation Lead – Ukraine Response Team)
Feedback from St Mary’s Ukrainian School
"Thanks to expertise and support that CAST and the bi-borough Ukraine response and Education teams have provided us with during this Screening project, we have got a much deeper understanding of the extent of trauma our Ukrainian children are dealing with. This knowledge enabled us to provide the targeted support they so vitally need to get a step closer to normal childhood. On behalf of all the children and parents at St Mary's Ukrainian school we are very grateful for this partnership." (Inna Hryhorovych M.B.E. Headteacher, St Mary's Ukrainian School).