Pupils in South London schools are being taught to use cognitive and behavioural techniques when they suffer with low moods and anxiety. CUES-Ed is a psycho-education project designed to bolster emotional wellbeing and resilience in primary school children. How effective is it? Darren Devine reports.

“We realised in going into primary schools and working with whole classes of 30 children at a time that we would need something very engaging, fun, creative, interactive — so that’s where we have strong visual branding and characters that we use.”

When children and teenagers end up in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) battling self-harm and thoughts of suicide their struggles are often underpinned by a single common complaint.

"I needed this years ago," is the all-too-common refrain.

While the help they get can mean the difference between life and death, earlier intervention might have stopped problems spiralling and kept them away from CAMHS.

 

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