Young Person's Health & Well-Being Services

Kent County Council have a range of youth services available online, including opportunities to talk to youth workers and friends as well as lots of new activities for you to try.

These services are available for those aged 8 - 18 years.

Kent Youth Health have school health teams across Kent who are available 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday including school holidays. You can self-refer and all the information can be found on their website.

This service is for any children and young people aged 4 - 19 years. 

Most people feel lonely sometimes, for many different reasons. If loneliness is affecting your life click here.

Access to your Medical Records

If you are aged 16 or over you can start to use our GP online services. 

Mindfulness is a skills programme now endorsed by The National Institute for Clinical Excellence and recognised as one of the pillars of the NHS Five Ways to Wellbeing. It is widely taught to help people find ways to lead a happier and more fulfilled life by learning how to better deal with their stresses, worries, relationships and more. Mindfulness is NOT a religion, a cult, a cure/therapy or “brain-washing”.

PAWS.b [pause be] is a leading mindfulness curriculum for children and is now widely taught in schools as part of PHSE. The programme was initially developed in collaboration with experienced primary school teachers at Pen y Bryn school and senior mindfulness teachers and researchers at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University in Wales.  

Learning from all of the lessons is encouraged to be connected to other aspects of the school curriculum where and when appropriate, such as exams and tests, music, sport, art, drama, friendship issues and more.

The curriculum is taught over 6 sessions each one lasting 45-60 minutes and contains interactive exercises and practices, some worksheets and short video clips and is designed to be a “light touch” and fun.

The feedback from young people who have previously taken part in PAWS.b is very positive. They report enjoying the lessons and find the learning supports them in a broad range of situations from being able to concentrate and focus more easily in school to helping them feel calmer in exams and competitions. Many have described sharing the learning with other family members and finding it helps them with their relationships with family and friends.

We are offering a PAWSb course at Ivy Court Surgery on a Monday after school from September 22 for children in Y5 and 6. Please note this is not a therapeutic intervention but a training programme  to help them cope with their difficulties. Experience has taught us that children don’t like coming to groups where they don’t know anyone and so we are happy for them to bring a friend as this is a universal programme for all children. 

Please contact:

Helen Brown – h.brown24@nhs.net

Emma Isworth - emma.isworth@nhs.net

Equine Facilitated Learning is now a recognised intervention for anxious or mentally unwell children, including, stress and anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, depression, ADD and trauma, who find traditional classroom learning and communication extremely challenging. With the skillful therapist and animals, programmes are tailored to the children’s particular needs. They learn about emotional regulation and physical health, boundaries, engagement and communication, problem solving and teamwork.

Children themselves report positive results from having attended these sessions but there is compelling recorded evidence of good outcomes of increased levels of self esteem, self-awareness, connectedness, clear thinking and confidence in their ability to cope again with day to day life and getting back to school.

We are able to offer 6 children a 6 week programme of 1:1 sessions at The Next Steps Forward near Lenham.

Please contact:

Helen Brown – h.brown24@nhs.net

Emma Isworth – emma.isworth@nhs.net